By Christine Leccese
“If something is important enough for someone to pick up the phone, it’s important,” says Gina A. Gillman, Family Readiness Group (FRG) leader in the Massachusetts National Guard, military wife, and former soldier. Gillman, whose husband has just deployed, has spent the past five years as the FRG leader for the 972 Military Police unit of the National Guard in Massachusetts.
Military Pathways caught up with Gillman at Hanscom Air Force Base recently to talk about the unique rewards and challenges that FRG leaders in the Guard experience.
The families of Guardsmen don’t usually live near a military base, so it can be a challenge for them to know where to turn with questions or problems, Gillman says. For this reason, many of the Guard family members call Gillman, who has experience helping families, but can also personally relate to the issues people in her FRG face.
Gillman is in the unique position of experiencing a deployment from both sides. She has been the deployed parent and spouse, as well as the spouse and parent left at home. Even with these two perspectives, she says her biggest challenge is trying to relate to every situation her families talk to her about. “I try to give people advice, but I don’t know what it’s like to have a child deployed,” she points out. She still lends a sympathetic ear to everyone who calls, gives them information they may need, and refers those looking for specific resources to the family assistance specialists.
Like most Guard families, Gillman works in a civilian job. She is an acquisitions specialist at Hanscom Air Force Base, and lives about 40 minutes away from any official Guard family resources. She loves her work as an FRG leader and said that any person involved with a soldier can attend FRG functions, contact the FRG, or get involved in any way they want. “People think we’re only a ‘wives’ group, but the truth is you can talk to the FRG if you’re a parent, sibling, or even friend or neighbor if you’re close to the Guardsman,” Gillman says.
Unlike active duty service members who usually live on or near base far from extended family, Guard members and Reservists often live near parents or siblings. This can make a deployment seem even more “real” to a parent. One parent in Gillman’s FRG got involved with the group by helping to plan events and write the newsletter.
Understandably, the FRG is more active when Guardsmen are deployed. While Gillman tries to hold two events a year when Guardsmen are not deployed, she is holding one every month now since the 972 unit recently deployed. As the FRG leader, one of Gillman’s roles is to keep families informed of the travel status of the soldiers. She does this via the 972 Family Readiness Group Facebook page and in regular newsletters.
The FRG recently held a Youth Deployment Day in which children of soldiers were able to get their faces made up with camouflage, eat MREs, and handle some military equipment. “The kids loved it and it was a great success, she recalls. She said it was a great success and the kids had a great time.
As someone who has been around the military for 10+ years, Gillman said she sees an evolution to a greater understanding of the needs of military families. The days of “the army didn’t issue you a family” are coming to a close, she said. “Soldiers can’t do their mission if they are worried about their families at home,” she points out. She said that the commander she works with on the 972 is very supportive of her efforts, and always keeps her informed so that she can keep FRG members informed.
Whatever families use the FRG for, and whomever accesses it, it is ultimately a resource so that families can lean on other families who understand their struggles. “I can talk to someone at work about missing my husband, but when my coworkers go home their husbands are there,” Gillman says.
And so she is committed to making a difference. A very important one.
Christine Leccese is the communications and marketing manager at Military Pathways.
