Emmalee Gruesen considers herself a “a unicorn” among military spouses working for the federal government. She’s been able to keep steady employment as a program analyst with the Navy over the last eight years despite four moves with her husband, a naval officer.

Booz Allen partners with the nonprofit Blue Star Families to help military families of color feel more at home and included in the local communities where they live and serve. It’s part of Booz Allen’s enduring commitment to the nonprofit that has lasted for more than a decade. As the military works to build a diverse all-volunteer force, ensuring a sense of belonging and community is an imperative for force readiness.

A Senate committee on Tuesday voted for a temporary rule change that would allow the upper chamber to start confirming large groups of military promotions, even if Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville keeps trying to block them.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday advanced plans to force a floor vote on hundreds of senior military promotions, potentially ending a nine-month nominations blockade that has upended planned leadership changes across the Department of Defense.

The co-founder of Blue Star Families, Kathy Roth-Douquet, talks about ways people can support military families and begin to turn around the U.S. military’s record low recruitment. Host Lynn Schmidt is a columnist and St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board member.

Imagine this: One person wielding arbitrary power over 1.5 million military family members. But surprise, it’s not the president — it’s Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
His move to block more than 250 officer promotions not only robs the military of valuable talent, it’s left two military branches leaderless: the Marines, without an official chief for the first time in 164 years, and the Army. The consequences are far-reaching, impacting those who defend our freedoms.

SALT LAKE CITY — Veterans still have until Monday night to get backdated benefits through the PACT Act.
Around 2,000 Utah vets have already had claims approved in the past year and advocates are trying to get anyone who hasn’t already applied to do so. Jenny Akin, Chief of Staff at Blue Star Families told KSL NewsRadio that, at its heart, the PACT Act makes it easier for Veterans and their surviving families to apply for assistance.

In front of an audience of veterans and some of Utah’s most high-profile Democrats, President Joe Biden recognized the first anniversary of signing the PACT Act into law at his only public appearance during a brief visit to Utah. At the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs health center on Thursday, Biden praised the support from all sides of the political aisle that led to the bill’s passage a year ago, saying, “We are the United States of America, there’s nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we decide to work together to get it done.”

When businesses and our military work together to address the challenges with recruiting in our armed forces, both will benefit. Why is this important? In the words of Francis Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and who passed away last year at the age of 107, the two institutions that have sustained our democracy from the very beginning are public education and the United States military. Today, both are under pressure, and American businesses can help.

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, integrating America’s Armed forces, and 75 years later, Howard University, a site with a deep history of military service and civil rights activism, recognized this pivotal moment in American history with a panel and symposium.
The university, in partnership with Blue Star Families and The Chamberlain Project hosted “Freedom to Serve: Integrating the Armed Services, an event that included robust conversations, an appearance by Air Force veteran and venerable actor Morgan Freeman, and a celebration of American heroes.