Jacey Eckhart is a military sociologist, nationally syndicated columnist, and director of spouse and family programs for Military.com. An Air Force brat, Navy wife, and Army mom, she wrote “Smokin’ Hot Romance” in Stories Around the Table: Laughter, Wisdom, and Strength in Military Life.
About her story Jacey says, “When it comes to military marriage I figure there are three kinds of people: 1) Those who were made for each other and who will be happy no matter what. 2) Those who were made for someone else and are destined to make a divorce attorney happy. 3) The rest of us. I think all of us in the third group are the most interesting. The things we do for each other and say to each other make a huge difference—and the research backs that up. I love my job because I am always collecting ideas from military couples about how they make it work in our world. I can’t wait to share those ideas so we can all get a little more of that happily ever after—which is really the best reward for a military life well-lived.”
Jacey is the author of The Homefront Club: The Hardheaded Woman’s Guide to Raising a Military Family and a sought-after speaker at military installations around the world. She is also the voice behind the award-winning CDs These Boots: A Spouse’s Guide to Stepping Up and Standing Tall During Deployment and I Married a Spartan: The Care and Feeding of Your Military Marriage.
She has been featured as a military family subject matter expert by The New York Times, NBC Dateline, CBS Morning News, CNN, NPR and Woman’s Day magazine. She a member of the American Sociological Association and certified by the American Society for Training and Development.
Jacey believes no one should get married until they take a road trip together, share their true credit scores, and make each other laugh like hyenas in bed. Since her marriage to a Navy surface warfare officer twenty-seven years ago, she has embraced the military family life to include sixteen moves, eight deployments, and three children.
*Author photo by Kari Cillo.