Marine wife receives national recognition

Erin Whitehead knows the difficulties military spouses face when they arrive at a new duty station or face another deployment.

After all, she is one.

But rather than withdraw, Whitehead’s solution was to become involved in the community around her. For that reason, she was named the Marine Corps’ 2010 Military Spouse of the Year by Military Spouse Magazine.

"It’s a great honor," she said. "I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I remember the days when I was a junior spouse and had not the first clue about how the military worked, and now I am able to kind of be a representative for those spouses. And, I’m very honored to be that voice."

Whitehead, from Havelock, is competing against other military branch spouses until May 6 when the overall winner will be announced in Washington. Voting is being conducted online at www.msoy.milspouse.com and ends on Friday.

Whitehead is married to Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Whitehead, of Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 2 at Cherry Point. He is a career Marine who has been deployed to Iraq twice. They’ve been married for 11 years and have an 8-year-old daughter, Morgan.

"My best advice — the thing that gets me through most of the challenges of being a military spouse is getting out there in the community because it’s very easy as a military spouse to stay within your own four walls for an entire time that you are at a duty station," she said. "But that becomes very lonely, and then when you do have to deal with a deployment, it’s harder on the spouse who has no support network, who might not know where to go to find help if they need it, and it also adds a burden to that military member."

She said no deployment or transfer is ever the same.

"Every time there’s a deployment or a move it’s going to be different no matter how much experience you have," she said. "There are going to be new challenges and it’s going to be hard."

She said volunteering is the key to being a successful and fulfilled military spouse. Among her efforts, she:

• volunteers at the Book Fair at Gurganus Elementary School.

• leads the children’s choir at First United Methodist Church in Havelock.

• serves as a LINKS mentor. The program is designed to mentor spouses, teens, and children about the Marines lifestyle to give them support and knowledge.

• works at the Ronald McDonald House in Greenville where about 20 percent of the families serviced are military families.

• helps coordinate the St. Jude Fun Run in Havelock to be held April 17.

• serves as a Web administrator and designer for her late nephew’s foundation, BSC Foundation, set up in memory of Brendon Coates, who lost his battle with brain cancer in 2008. The purpose of the foundation is to improve the quality of life for the families and children who are affected by cancer. The Web site is www.bscfoundation.com.

• maintains the Web site www.manykindregards.com that’s an advice column about military life.

"I’m proud of her, obviously," her husband said. "It’s a great achievement to be recognized by in large by people you don’t know."