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December 9, 2003: Recognition of Spouses Should Be Part of Transformation - "Today's military families are a partnership between spouses, meaning that spouses' desire for respect, appreciation, and opportunity to advance need to be taken into account as much as the service members'."

November 7, 2003: Know the Difference Between Freebies and Charity - "Never be too proud to accept charity when you need it, especially if you have children, but use it wisely and take it as a warning that you need to review your lifestyle and spending habits."

September 12, 2003: Why "No" Is a Dirty Word - "Anyone who has a three-year-old child will tell you how powerful the word "no" is. So can anyone who has run into a Department of Defense bureaucrat."

August 29, 2003: Quality of Life Means Different Things - "For many service members, quality of life has to do with their working environment. They want good managers, better pay, opportunities for advancement, new training initiatives, and fewer deployments. All of this is nice, but often means little to military wives."

August 15, 2003: Let the Competition Begin - "Nothing sends public sector employees into a tizzy like the idea of cooperating with the private sector. Government leaders talk about public-private partnerships, but only if they can control it to death."

August 1, 2003: Needed at DoD: Professionalism - "One of the imprints I hope Secretary Rumsfeld will leave on the military is a better sense of professionalism."

June 25, 2003: To Join or Not To Join The Spouse Club - "It may seem silly, but it is a question the faces military wives, especially new or relocating ones: Do I join the spouse club?"

May 28, 2003: Reviving the Officers and Enlisted Clubs - "Several years ago, the Powers that Be grew concerned that the Clubs' very existence was encouraging service members to drink too much."

Meredith Leyva is the author of Married to the Military: A Survival Guide for Military Wives Girlfriends and Women in Uniform. She founded CinCHouse.com, a nonprofit organization of military wives and women in uniform in 1998 when she was Vice President of the Technology Practice of Fleishman Hillard. During her career, she has worked as a public relations strategist and lobbyist for a variety of defense and technology companies, and served as legislative assistant to Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) during his tenure on the House Armed Services Committee. In that capacity she was named Congressional Staffer of the Year by The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA) for her work in helping increase pay and benefits for veterans. An Army brat, Meredith has been married for six years to Lt. Fernando Leyva, a Navy diver and physician, during which time the couple has relocated five times across the continental United States. She gave birth to their son, Alejandro, in February after moving to Panama City, Florida, where Fernando is now stationed at the Navy’s Experimental Dive Unit.