This book pulls no punches. It covers the negatives in this time of multiple wars and details what the enlisted spouse needs to know and how to get it in the vast superstructure of the American military. Seemingly impersonal, but on the personal level not always so, the military, a subset of the Federal Government, is a myriad of departments and personnel with designations and descriptions not always evident to the spouse coping with a host of sudden concerns. Step by step the basics of government moves, housing, legal matters, managing money, military medicine, child care, discounted travel, employment, manners, abusive behaviour, retirement and surviving death on active duty are basics covered. Everything needed to make life better, in these difficult times, is available through Uncle Sam and the author shows how and, through her twenty years of experience, shows how to survive financially and even find some prosperity.