Twenty sets of families serving in the Minnesota National Guard deployed to Japan earlier this year.
The families are made up of siblings, parents and spouses deployed to the 18th Wing, Kadena Air Base, Japan, the National Guard said in a release.
“The family members serving together embody a profound commitment to service, not only to their country but also to each other, united by a shared sense of duty, sacrifice, and honor and their service to the Minnesota Air National Guard,” 148th Fighter Wing Commander, Col. Nathan Aysta said in the release.
The Minnesota National Guard has previously had several sets of families who deployed together but 20 was a record, with the service describing it as “unprecedented” in their release. The unusual situation highlighted what military service looks like in small-town America and a broader familial trend that experts and sociologists have studied. Meanwhile, the military has leaned into the trend, often recruiting from the families of former service members. The concept has been referred to as the “warrior caste,” according to an analysis by Janine A. Davidson, former under secretary of the Navy and a scholar of civil-military relations.
“We see it across a range of professions where there is a calling that’s higher than just the individual’s career. We see it in medicine, we see it in firefighting, we see it in police officers,” said Kate Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. “It’s something that you can see yourself serving in given the fact that you’re exposed to it.”
In 2016, Department of Defense data indicated that around 80% of service members had a family member who served — although Davidson noted in her analysis that the statistics were more accurately attributed to having family members drafted to serve in Korea and Vietnam. A 2016 Blue Star Family survey showed a similar, but less dramatic trend: 45% of active duty, 47% of military spouses, and 57% of veterans respondents had a parent who served.
“Senior officers have connected the familiarity gap to familial ties with some calling service a ‘family business,’ which, if left unabated, has the potential to lead to a military completely cut off from society,” Davidson wrote in her analysis. “The propagation of military service within families not only skews the demographics of the recruiting pool, but also contributes substantially to feelings of isolation and excessive burdens falling upon the few.”
As the services deal with a growing civilian-military divide, leaders are trying to “build back that familiarity” to recruit potential troops from a population that is less likely than they were 30 years ago to interact with the military or even veterans, Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, commander for the Air Force Recruiting Service said at a press briefing on recruiting last week.
“In 1990, 40% of our young adults had a parent who served. That’s down to 15% today. In the past, those direct ties were key to conveying the boundless opportunities and experiences that are gained from military service,” Katie Helland, the director of accession policy for the Defense Department said at the briefing. “Without these personal connections, we find fewer young adults are familiar with the benefits of service.”
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At the same time, a 2023 Blue Star Family lifestyle survey indicated that troops nowadays are less likely to recommend military service, citing quality of life issues like spouse employment, time away from family, pay, housing and children’s education. In 2016, 55% of active duty families said they would recommend military service compared to 32% of respondents in 2023, the survey found.
With the growing unfamiliarity, troubles recruiting from Generation Z and concerns from service member families about the military lifestyle, the branches have started making some inroads on quality of life issues. Troops received a cumulative 9.8% pay raise in the last two years with a proposed 4.5% additional pay increase in the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request which is being considered by Congress.
In September, Defense Department Secretary Lloyd Austin put out his “Taking Care of Our People” memo which highlighted recent and forthcoming efforts to improve recruiting, retention, and readiness across the force including more WiFi access in junior enlisted barracks, employment resources for military spouses, child care assistance and funds for temporary lodging allowances between station moves.
Audra Flanagan, a retired lieutenant colonel and spokesperson for the 148th Wing told Task & Purpose that there were no specific policies or recommendations from National Guard leadership “regarding our family connections” but that it was “organic” with multiple family members signing up for a deployment because it made it their time away from home that much easier and enjoyable.
The 148th was tasked to deploy 30% of its personnel on active duty to Kadena to support missions for Air Force units based in the Pacific region, Flanagan said. The Japan activation was part of the wing’s scheduled deployment cycle. For the Minnesota Guard, previous deployment cycles included Iraq in 2005, 2007 and 2009, Afghanistan in 2012, South Korea in 2016, Kuwait in 2018, and Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Staff Sgt. Macy Sunnarborg joined the 2022 deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia without her family and compared the experience to this year’s deployment with her sister, Senior Airmen Mallory Sunnarborg.
“Having Mal here, I feel like I don’t miss home as much because home is here,” she said in the National Guard release.
For Tech. Sgt. Catherine Schmisek, she went to Japan with not only her husband, Staff Sgt. Matthew Schmisek, who transferred from the Army to the Air National Guard so they could drill and deploy together, but was joined by members of her immediate family. Her father, Col. John Zupancic, commands the 148th Fighter Wing’s medical group and her brothers, Staff Sgt. Carl and Staff Sgt. John both work for the maintenance squadron.
“It has been an experience. “I never would have thought that I would be on a deployment with my husband, let alone my brothers as well,” Schmisek said.