While our poll of your top deployment marriage stressors (don’t forget to VOTE!) continues, I went and got a quick rundown of family support spending from each of the four services.
Things to keep in mind: everyone was not able to give us numbers that can be exactly compared. For example, the Army number is what the service spends on the entire Army Family Covenant, which includes healthcare and housing spending, while the Marine Corps number pretty much only covers their Family Readiness program.
Also, keep in mind that as of late June, the Army is more than three times the size of the Marine Corps, well over twice the size of the Navy, and 30,000 service members short of being twice the size of the Air Force. The Army’s budget is, of course, going to exceed that of the others.
Without further ado, here they are:
Army: $8 billion -- covers the Army Family Covenant, which includes housing, family health care, all child and youth services (CYS), morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) activities and all Family Readiness Groups (FRG). Surprisingly, it does not include funding for the Strong Bonds marriage retreat.
Navy: $3.1 billion -- covers about the same as the Army budget.
Air Force: $1 billion -- covers MWR, CYS, and Airman and family readiness but not housing, healthcare, etc.
Marine Corps: $409 million -- covers only readiness group spending and some behavioral health programs, like family advocacy. They also recently authorized an additional $100 million for family care related improvements, including fixes to and new equipment for child care facilities, playgrounds, and gyms.
All of the budget data, except the Marine Corps, is what was spent in 2010. USMC was able to give me their expected budget for 2011.
Now that you know what is supposed to be happening, do you see the results? If you look around, can see you the money going to work?
