Joint Spouses Luncheons
Mar 19 2008
The other day, I was privileged to be invited to attend the Joint Spouses’ Luncheon in Hampton Roads. The DC equivalent of this event is the Joint Armed Forces Officers Wives Luncheon (JAFOWL). Legend has it that these luncheons came about decades ago when one of the spouse clubs asked famed journalist, Art Buchwald to come speak to their group in 1977. Mr. Buchwald had a soft spot in his heart for the military and replied that he didn’t normally do that many speaking engagements and did not relish the thought of fielding multiple invitations from each of the area groups, but if all the spouses’ clubs in the area could get together for one joint event, he would be happy to speak. Thus was born the tradition of the Joint Spouses’ Luncheons. Since then, the five services: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard have come together to put together this annual event.
The speakers are generally well known. Past speakers at the JAFOWL include: President Bush, General Pace, Lee Woodruff and of course, Art Buchwald. I’m sure that for many of the spouses attending, it is these famous speakers who are the draw. Not for me. What I love about these luncheons is that they are joint with spouses representing all services, all components. At the DC JAFOWL, I’ve met spouses there whose husbands retired in the area – they’ve been coming to these luncheons since they first started and can count on one hand the number they’ve missed.
My favorite part of the entire event is always when they sing the respective service songs and ask the attendees to stand when their service song is sung. It’s always fun to hear each group try to outdo the others. I always feel sorry for the Coast Guard spouses because they are always smallest in number. Although, there are not generally ever that many Marine spouses, but they always beat the rest of us because they sing the loudest!
Anyway, back to last week’s lunch. I was floored by the time and attention that went into the event. – no detail was overlooked. The event was held on an Air Force Base, so one of the ladies had decided it would be nice if each attendee could take home a memento. To that end, she had contacted Lockheed Martin to see if they would donate 200 F-22 charms. Then she proceeded to drill holes in the handle of 200 spreaders so that she could thread and wrap around a thin wire decorated with lovely beads and the F-22 charm. At some point, I will take a picture of this and upload it for you all. A friend of mine remarked that the woman who had decorated all these spreaders had to go through carpal tunnel surgery…but she quickly added that it had nothing to do with having to drill the 400 holes and decorating the spreaders….as if!
All kidding aside, the entire event was fabulous and I walked away having made new friends and once again filled with a renewed appreciation for our community.
