Because being in the military is a life style for the entire family, the military has instated a group to help all individuals in the family feel connected and knowledgeable about the events going on with their soldier.

That is how the FRG was born. It stands for Family Readiness Group.

This group is made at the company level, which is about 100 soldiers. It encompasses the soldiers and the families.

So once a month, Tom and I go to a classroom to meet with all the other members of his company and their families. It depends on the FRG leaders and company commander whether single soldiers are included in this or if it is just the soldiers who are married. Ours is everyone.

At these monthly meetings, the company leaders go over the next month’s schedule. I find this really helpful to know how the training is going to look and when Tom will be away or when he has a DONSA (day off).

They will also provide us with resources or any other announcements that will pertain to us. For example, at the last meeting there was someone from the job center who talked about resources their office has.

This is often where we find out the most recent information about deployments.

The FRG does have some leaders that are the soldiers spouses. There is an FRG leader, who is usually a higher officer’s wife. Then each platoon in the company will have a POC (Point of Contact). This person will help disseminate information and do call outs to all the spouses in their particular platoon. They also have an FRG treasurer, again another spouse.

Depending on the FRG, there may be other things besides these monthly meetings that they plan. Some FRGs have parties or events throughout the year. Ours did a lot during the summer, but we have not done as much this winter. We have had quite a few potlucks at the monthly meetings though. Any events are usually family oriented and kid friendly. I mean “family” is in their title.

The FRG will still meet when the company is deployed. I am interested to see how it changes when all the men are not there. I was in Iowa last time, and I would just get the PowerPoints from them. I am sure that this gives us spouses a great chance to get to know each other too.

It is a pretty simple group. Since there are so many of them, they can change drastically on how they look though. We have even seen a change in this FRG since the new leadership arrived. So what the group will do will depend on both the spouses involved as well as the company leaders.

As you can see it is quite different than what the show Army Wives depicts.

It seems like I learn things about the Army every day.  I am by no means an expert at all things Army, but I love exploring new topics and sharing what I see as a military spouse.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Armucation.

Do you have any questions about military life? Do you have any topic you would like me to write about? Feel free to ask away!