RE: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,188784,00.html

I have made it a point to avoid FRG at any cost and so has my wife. At my last unit it became a soap opera of gossip and drama with the wives creating more issues than even the Army could create.

FRG has a purpose, it is a support group, an avenue to get questions and concerns answered. It is not meant to be a social network for drama. There is enough of that on television thank you very much.

Men and women should both be accepted there and someone being 'forced to resign' because of their sex is just plain stupid.

This is the Ken that the Author spoke of. While Angel was in Iraq, I founded Operation: A Bit of Home, or abitofhome.org. We build DVD lending libraries for MWR's overseas, and we send needed and requested items to the soldiers. Got a few DVD's you don't watch, send them to us so that many soldiers can enjoy them. We are now 5 years old and going strong!

I completely agree it is stupid for someone to be forced to resign because of their sex. I can totally relate to a long and lonely deployment - going through one now. I'm not a spouse, but we've been together a couple of years. There is no one around me that has a clue what this is like. Truly sucks.
There is no reason that someone should be forced to spend a deployment on their own simply because a few women can't be open minded.

FRG is set in place to support all family members and that is what everyone needs to remember. FRGs are open to fathers, husbands, mothers, child, friends and citizen that just want to show thier support not just wives and that is the way it needs to be.

Our husbands that have to keep the lights burning on our home fronts also need support.

Deployments effect everyone.

Well I agree with "norgwar". Our family has had nothing but bad experiences with FRG's. They are completely mis-used and not for the purpose they were started for. After our first deployment, I decided to never have anything to do with another FRG. When you need help and you ask an FRG leader for information on things only to hear that it's not your business or that you get treated like they think the FRG is all about rank, even though they wear none or to have an FRG leader decide to put your husband on a single soldiers list and him start receiving explicit emails and letters with nude pictures from women back in the states, that's enough FRG for anyone. I hate the FRG's I think they are nothing more than a bunch of witches that have nothing better to do than gossip about spouses and soldiers and undermine the unit. Units don't even take them serious. We have more people with our unit that have told the FRG they refuse any contact with them, which according to the Army, written approval for the FRG to contact any spouse or family member is required from the spouse or family. But they don't follow that either. My second 15 month deployment was so much better since I had nothing to do with the FRG and didn't hear from them the entire time. Talk about zero unit drama! It's a shame that it has to be that way, but it's a command program and if the command refuses to step in to keep the FRG running the right way, it's just another useless benefit from the Army.

Its the same for me. I've avoided FRG at all costs after only attending two meetings. Both time everyone just stared at me, no one would talk to me, and any questions I had were met with smug exasperation. All because I don't fit into their little mold, I don't look like them and I don't have children (no offense to those who do but that is all they seem to talk about) and I work full time. Its ridiculous they've turned a support network into a social group/popularity contest. And more power to Ken for getting more or less kicked out and using his time to make a great organization like OABOH.

Any country that will send its mothers and daughters into offensive overseas combat is a country in decline. The US armed forces should confine itself to the defense of the nation and recruitment should be on that basis only. Women's entry into the service academies in 1976 was won on the basis of fairness of opportunity not national defense. Shannon Faulkner played a cute trick on the Citidel by leaving her sex obscure on her application. When the joke was discovered after her acceptance the left forced Falkner into a legal brawl with the Citidel. South Carolina offered a similar education in an institution for women but Faulkner's handlers argued she would never experience the Citidel. She won. As soon as she entered the Citidel she changed it and it's 150 year tradition. So Faulkner never did get to experience the Citidel in the week she lasted there. More importantly none of the men from that time forward would either. Women's groups gossip, backbite and pull rank. Men's groups boast, belittle and sexually harrass each other. Both seem to fullfil a need for their particular sex. Drop just one member of the opposite sex into either group and you change the group. Is there any wonder why there might be some resistance? By law, men cannot have a same sex group anymore, even in the military, but for pete's sake, let the women have theirs.

Men are fathers and sons and just as important. Support has nothing to do with someone's sex, or sexual orientation for that matter. It makes me sad to hear a fellow 'sister' (15941542) speak of women as if they are better than war and men and deserve preferential treatment. I'm glad some traditions have been broken. 150 years is not that long for a country that's only 233 years old (and spent 100 years of that commending slavery). I would gladly replace my husband in a war zone. Not just because I love him, but I feel that I am just as capable as he is, and his living is just as necessary as my own. I believe all PEOPLE are important. They all should have the same (or comparable) opportunities, at war and at home. Especially if they are without the person they love and need other souls for some support. Women that are unaccepting of men in a group are taking a serious step back in evolution. It's just selfish.