ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the life-style of young Navy and Marine Corps families, including evaluation of existing family programs—personal services centers, Navy wives' information clubs, wives' associations, and to conduct a needs assessment. Interviews were conducted with individuals involved in managing such programs at various levels, for example, a retired admiral who directs the Navy Relief Society on the national level and the commandant of a naval district responsible for appointing ombudsmen. The methodology is based on typical participant-observation techniques used by sociocultural anthropologists. As an organization, the Navy places systematic demands on the individual to perform specific tasks in certain places at certain times. In exchange, the individual is entitled to certain benefits—wages, medical treatment. Definite themes or patterns emerged in the conversations with the Navy wives, but without comparative data from other geographical locations or from Navy wives in other financial situations, one cannot assume that these themes or patterns are the same throughout the Navy system.
