Army "husbands" feel left out when wives wear the boots

Role of men married to female soldiers still evolving
Fort Hood Herald
Rose L Thayer
Herald staff writer
March 5, 2014

Kyle Tomaszewski married his high school sweetheart more than three years ago. His wife decided during nursing school to join the Army as a medic.

“She wanted something more out of life,” said Tomaszewski, 23. “She wanted to feel like she could help people and make a difference.”

After she attended basic training, he quit his job as a quality engineer in Wisconsin and joined his wife at Fort Hood. She’s now deployed to Korea with 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. With no career options in his field available locally, he now attends nursing school at Central Texas College.

As the Army continues to open job positions and units to women and studies the best way to bring women into a predominately male world, male spouses of female soldiers struggle to determine what it means to be an Army husband.

As a male military spouse, Tomaszewski is not alone. At Fort Hood, more than 3,500 of the post’s 6,836 female soldiers are married. In total, female soldiers make up about 16 percent of the Fort Hood population.

When it comes to events for Army spouses, many of them are geared toward women. It’s something Tomaszewski has seen time and time again, including a recent event where he said Army spouse participates received a free makeup kit.

Tomaszewski has not joined any military spouse groups or the unit’s family readiness group. He’s heard bad things about them, he said, and many of the events are geared toward Army wives or people with children.
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