Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden to the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) at the Commander’s Conference
Alexandria, Virginia
Thank you, Major General Angle, for that introduction and for your decades of service to our country. I also want to thank your wife Jennifer, along with Leigh Beth and her husband Command Sergeant Major Munter, for such a warm welcome here today.
You, the members of our special forces, do work that is unseen by so many Americans. Your names don’t make our headlines. And your missions continue, through wartime and peace, without end.
That’s a heavy weight to carry at times. But you don’t carry it alone. Your families serve alongside you, loving and encouraging and praying for you, often without knowing where you are or what dangers you face.
Through every mission, families—so many of you—carry a heavier share of the child care and home responsibilities. You lose sleep at night, while pride and hope and fear and frustration wrestle in your mind. You don’t always get months to prepare. You don’t always have time for a lengthy goodbye. Again and again, you make plans, and then, just like that, they’re gone.
Still, you face each challenge with resilience and strength, by putting your shoulders back and your chin up. You answer the call of duty with grit and resilience, with constancy and courage. I know that you are strong. There’s no question about that. But you shouldn’t have to face these challenges on your own.
Joining Forces, my White House initiative to support military and veteran families, caregivers, and survivors, is working every day to get you the support you’ve earned.
We’re working to create career and entrepreneurship opportunities for spouses. We’re making sure families can get quality child care when they need it. We’re supporting military kids’ education. And we’re creating more resources for military family health and wellbeing.
We can’t expect to keep our best and brightest if we are asking our special forces to choose between their love of country and their love of family. That’s why this is a national security imperative.
Our military is a community unlike any other. It’s bound together by love—love for our nation, love for your service members—your husbands and wives, your moms and dads, and love for the communities you build together.
Your commitment to this country never wavers. And you deserve that same devotion.
So thank you all for your service and your sacrifice. Thank you for coming together to focus on how to better serve our military families.
Your President and I stand with you—today, tomorrow, and for all the days to come.
God bless you and your families.
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