After a whirlwind trip to the Middle East with the Secretary of Defense, Matt and I sit down just three days after I returned to talk about what the project was like for both of us. Although I hoped to make a difference in spouses’ understanding of their service members, I could not have anticipated how much Matt’s voice would also have an impact. Of course, I think he is amazing, but his perspective on what it was like to stay home while I was away resonated for so many military spouses. Here in our Reintegration Video, we discuss our thoughts together and answer questions you submitted on what it was like to reverse roles.
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Corie Weathers, LPC, BCC, NCC
Catch up on Past Briefs:
Brief 02: The Rhetoric of Lethality
The vocabulary of and toward the military has narrowed to a single attribute — and the person who carries it has been edited out.
Maximum lethality. Hunt, and kill. Without mercy. None of it is wrong — they are warfighters. But this brief traces where that register has worked, where it has failed, and what it asks of the people who must live inside it.
Brief 01: Follow the Money: The Warrior Ethos, Redefined
The FY2027 $350 billion mandatory defense request, and what the Warrior Ethos banner funds now.
The language calls it the Warrior Ethos. The scope has changed. This brief walks through three connected shifts in 2026 — in words, money, and how the institution treats the people who sustain the force — and what they mean for military families.