By Lisa Daniel
Jenn and Shane Whitacre, a Missouri Army National Guard member, and their children meet with Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, July 9, 2012 in Jefferson City, Mo. Biden held a roundtable discussion to learn about the Missouri National Guard's program to partner with churches to help service members. Missouri National Guard photo by Jennifer Archdekin
As Missouri National Guard members met with Dr. Jill Biden this week to discuss their family challenges and areas of support, Jenn Whitacre’s feedback was both professional and personal.
As a National Guard family assistance center coordinator in Jefferson City, Whitacre spends her days helping Guard families – pursuing job opportunities, finding childcare, arranging transportation, shoveling snow, and the like. As it turned out, Whitacre’s toughest challenge was her own.
Whitacre’s husband, Army National Guard Spc. Shane Whitacre, returned from a year in Iraq with a shoulder injury that proved more complicated than the couple expected. Shane needed surgery and would not be able to lift anything or drive for six months. In the weeks after the surgery, he would spend six hours each day in a physical therapy chair and another six in an ice pack.
The couple had arranged their schedules around that of their four children, but things got complicated when they learned Shane would not be able to lift their 6-month-old daughter. Jenn had to leave at 6 a.m. for work each day, and daycare didn’t open until after 7.
“There are all these small things you don’t think about, like how to get the baby in and out of the car seat,” Whitacre said. She called the couple’s church and found a parishioner willing to help, but then the volunteer got sick and the plan fell through.
With the Christmas holidays upon them, Whitacre said, she didn’t know where to turn. She had taken pains to sort out all the details, “and this was going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she said. Worse yet, she explained, she didn’t want to ask for help and, in fact, thought it might be inappropriate to do so, given her job in networking to help others.
Dr. Jill Biden, left, poses with Army Col. Gary Gilmore, joint force chaplain for the Missouri National Guard, and his wife, on July 9, 2012. Biden met with the Gilmores and other Guard members in Jefferson City, Mo., to discuss their partnership with churches to help service members. Missouri National Guard photo by Jennifer Archdekin
Luckily for Whitacre, she works with Army Col. Gary Gilmore, joint force chaplain for the Missouri National Guard. Gilmore had been putting together a “Partners in Care” program, in which the Guard partners with churches and other religious groups to help National Guard families in their own communities.