NORFOLK, Va. — With low pay, frequent moves and long deployments--not to mention the danger-- life in the military can be tough--as Hampton Roads military families know all too well.
Now a new survey confirms it.
The non-profit Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) on Wednesday published its Military Family Support Programming Survey --which notes: " the well-being of our military families isn't just the right thing to do, it is a national security imperative."
"None of these issues live in a vacuum. These issues are all connected, and they impact each other," said Military Family Advisory Network Chief Executive Officer Shannon Razsadin.
Capturing the experiences of over 10,000 active-duty military personnel, National Guard and Reserve members, veterans, retirees and their family members, "the results provide an in-depth look into the military community’s recurring and emerging support needs," according to a news release from MFAN.
Among the dozens of topics studied, Razsadin said perhaps the most concerning findings involve food and the lack of it.
"We found that about 27.7% of our active-duty service members were experiencing food insecurity. We can't have that," she said.
Also of concern is the declining number of military members who said that they would recommend military service to a family member.
Those numbers are down 5% from 2021.
"The not-so-good news here is, we're seeing a decline. So, we are at approximately 55% of our respondents would recommend military service to somebody they care about. And that is a decline from last year. So, we have to figure that out," said Razsadin.
Twenty-one percent of military spouses said they're unemployed. Fifty-nine percent of military members said they're lonely. Eleven percent said they have considered suicide.
The study drew on respondents from all 50 states, four U.S. territories, and 19 countries — with 76.4% of respondents from the enlisted ranks. Of the ten states that provided the most responses, Virginia led the way, with 13.5% of all responses coming from the Old Dominion.
According to MFAN, the study is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind.