(This article by Latayne C. Scott originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of Military Officer, a magazine available to all MOAA Premium and Life members, who can log in to access our digital version and archive. Basic members can save on a membership upgrade and access the magazine.)

Between serving in the Army Reserve and raising five children aged 8 and younger, including a set of twins, Staff Sgt. Robert Hendrix has a lot on his plate.

“The biggest challenge for my family is the lack of my physical presence in their lives,” Hendrix said. “They are saddened when I have to miss little milestones.”

But he has remarkable resources: relatives in his hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., and a kid-friendly church, all of whom help his wife, Nicole, with child care and other needs during his deployments.

However, a significant number of military families don’t have such immediate resources. Extended family members may be scattered across the country or beyond, and it can take time to develop local connections. It can be even more difficult in situations where all the parents or guardians in a family are currently serving; they must balance work schedules, medical concerns, and together time.

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Still, it can be done, according to Space Force Lt. Col. Maria Quinn, whose spouse is also on active duty with the service. They recently had their seventh child.

What is Quinn’s strategy? She sets clear and articulated long-term goals, revisited almost daily. She also turns to child care, which “has made all the difference in serving and growing our family.”

Here are seven assets available for those who could also use a helping hand:

1. Military OneSource The granddaddy of all resources is Military OneSource, a gateway to DoD’s Military Community and Family Policy assets for the everyday needs of the millions of servicemembers and their immediate families. A spokesman said it provides “a variety of resources, including family counseling, wellness programs, permanent change-of-station tools, child care, career and educational support, and various other tools to ensure that service members and their families have what they need to succeed both at home and in their duties.” Get more details online or by calling (800) 342-9647.

2. The MOAA Foundation. Since the onset of COVID-19, The MOAA Foundation disbursed grants to support families with housing, food assistance, behavioral health needs, and more. 

3. Blue Star Families. Founded by military spouses, Blue Star Families offers community support to help servicemembers with issues like isolation and child care. Explore its offerings.

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4. National Military Family Association. NMFA offers offers resources, guides, scholarships, and programs like Operation Purple Camp to support military families.

5. Give an Hour. The Give an Hour program connects servicemembers with the donated skills (more than 380,000 hours since 2005) of mental health professionals to address the impact of military service on family dynamics.

6. Partners In PROMISE. The organization -- “PROMISE” stands for “Protecting the Rights Of Military children In Special Education” -- helps family members navigating the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP), provides resources for students and educators, and advocates for equal access to education. Crystal DeVoss Mahany, a policy research and legal analyst with Partners in PROMISE, said each member of the organization is a military spouse and/or a current or former servicemember. Find out more online or email info@partnersinpromise.org.

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7. Operation Child Care Project. OCCP helps military families with the perennial issue of child care and addresses the importance of work-life balance. Kayla Corbitt, its founder and CEO, said the organization’s privately funded approach focuses on military families “navigating nontraditional care needs.”

“OCCP usually gets the tricky cases when it comes to care,” Corbitt said, citing a recent example involving an enlisted family with a toddler, with the spouse an EFMP member. With a compassionate reassignment for lifesaving treatment involving transfusions and surgeries, the family’s care options in a new place became desperate. OCCP went to bat for them, securing financial grants to cover the travel and weekly costs of a family member to fly in and help, said Corbitt.

“We were thrilled to hear that just three months later, this spouse has made a fantastic recovery thanks to ready access to medical care,” she said, “and we just assisted them with applying for the military fee assistance program because she was able to go back to work.”

Latayne C. Scott is an author of 31 books and thousands of shorter works. She is based in Albuquerque, N.M.