Since she was a teen, Rebekah Witter dreamed of becoming a commercial airline pilot. But she put her career on hold when she and her husband, who serves in the Army, found out they were having a baby.
“I was like, I gotta stay home, especially with my spouse being military,” said Witter, now 22. “Someone needs to be there to be stable with my son while his father is gone.”
Witter didn’t mind becoming a stay-at-home mom. But she felt like she was disappearing.
Now Witter is grounded in a routine at Fort Bragg—juggling a 1‑year‑old and college classes while trying to hold on to the identity she built long before she became an Army spouse. She worries that an upcoming move to Alaska will erase the progress she’s made.
“I’m more than just Sergeant Witter’s wife. I’m more than just Roy’s mom,” she told CityView. “I’m Rebekah. I have my own dreams and aspirations.”
On Wednesday, she joined about 30 other military spouses trying to build careers sturdy enough to survive the next set of orders, and the ones after that. They packed a classroom at Fort Bragg for a professional development event hosted by Hiring Our Heroes, a program that connects military families with “military‑ready” employers.
‘A National Security Issue’
Military spouses have an unemployment rate of about 23%, leaving many families dependent on a single paycheck.
Roughly half of military families cite spouse employment as a top concern, and an Army survey found that 28.5% of soldiers consider the impact of military life on their spouse’s career a reason to leave the service.
Hiring Our Heroes aims to teach spouses how to build portable careers, navigate automated hiring systems, and translate their skills into strong resumes. The organization hopes to keep spouses’ ambitions alive while strengthening both long‑term military retention and the broader workforce that relies on it.
Melissa Sanderson, senior director of military spouse programs at Hiring Our Heroes, said none of this is new—but the consequences are growing.
The organization launched in 2011 to help veterans and transitioning service members find work. But its leaders quickly realized the military’s employment crisis extended beyond soldiers.
“Military spouses are one of the most overlooked talent pools in America,” Sanderson said. “Even the most highly skilled spouses struggle to maintain stable careers … because every PCS (Permanent Change of Station) means starting over.”
Military spouses are forced to start over “every two to three years with every move,” Sanderson said—turning what might look like a workforce problem into what she calls “a national security issue.”
“Financial stability directly affects service member readiness, morale, and whether they choose to stay in the military,” she said. “Everybody needs a dual income in 2026. When spouses can’t build sustainable careers, the entire force feels it.”
Two Sisters, One Unpredictable Future
Wednesday’s event at the Iron Mike Conference Center was part of Amplify, Hiring Our Heroes’ signature program for military spouses. It’s a one‑day crash course that includes one‑on‑one coaching and small‑group workshops. Participants rotate through sessions on networking, professional branding, résumé building, interview prep, and negotiation.
They took part in an IBM SkillsBuild demo, posed for professional headshots, and engaged in mock interviews to test their pitches in front of real employers.
For Witter and her 24-year-old sister, Angela Braaten, the abstract problems Sanderson described are already shaping every decision they make. They grew up just outside Fort Bragg—their father was stationed there for more than a decade—and both still lived in the area when they met and married their husbands in 2024. Now they’re trying to build careers that can survive the constant churn of military life.
When Witter chose to stay home with her son, she switched to studying engineering in hopes of finding more stability as her family moves.
She’s a full‑time student at Sandhills Community College, but she knows she will have to restart her job search in Alaska by early next year
Braaten’s path looks different but carries the same instability. She earned a degree in criminal justice in 2024 and hoped to work in law enforcement. But soon after graduation, she realized she didn’t want the lifestyle that inevitably comes with that career. She applied to government and civilian positions within an hour of the base, but all of her applications went nowhere.
“I swung my bat many times, and many times I ran into ‘you don’t have experience,’ or ‘this isn’t the resume we’re looking for,’” Braaten said.
‘You Find Ways to Be Flexible’
Eventually, Braaten pivoted to real estate, earning her license in 2025. She figures she can carry the job state to state, even if it means retaking licensing exams with every move. Her husband’s hoped‑for commission in the Air Force could move them again within a year or two, so she plans to pursue an online law degree to keep her long‑term goals alive.
“You find ways to be flexible, but also to stay together,” she said. “You never know what the future is going to be, but you do know you’ll be moving.”
For both sisters, the drive to build a career isn’t just about income—it’s about identity.
“It’s incredibly important to me,” Witter said. “It keeps your individualism.”
The transition from soaring through the skies to staying home with a newborn was jarring. “It was really hard going from flying airplanes every single day to cleaning toilets and changing diapers,” Witter said. “I felt like I lost a sense of myself in that transition. As much as I love being a mother–I love my baby, I would never trade that–but it is so important to maintain this aspect of ‘this is what I was meant to do. This is what keeps me happy.’”
Both sisters said Wednesday’s workshop offered something they rarely get: clarity.
By midday they had already started to rethink how they present themselves on paper.
Witter realized her resume had been formatted incorrectly for years. Braaten learned how to tailor applications to beat automated screening systems that had shut her out.
And in a room full of spouses—all trying to build careers that can withstand the military’s constant reshuffling—they said they finally felt optimistic, and less alone.
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com or 910-988-8045.
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