“Excuse me ma’am, can you please get off your couch?”
In 2018, Jennifer Ferrell and Kirstin Navaroli found themselves sitting on a couch while packers packed up Kirst’s household goods. (The packers arguably also needed to pack the couch the two friends were occupying…)
The two military spouses were deep in conversation on how they could change the negative narrative behind marrying into the military.
“When we each started dating our spouses, everything online was so negative,” said Jen. “There were a lot of ‘buckle up’ and ‘your life is over’ posts, and we began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into.”
Together, they envisioned creating a positive, uplifting military spouse community that would span beyond just one military installation.
The Wives of the Armed Forces (WAF) is the abundant manifestation of that dream.
Military Spouses Turned Best Friends
After being introduced to each other through their husbands in Tacoma, Washington, the two didn’t immediately hit it off.
“Kirst went to her husband (then boyfriend) and asked for help making connections,” said Jen. “We went to a baseball game together, stood around and drank cheap beer, talked about life, and that was it. It wasn’t until our guys deployed back-to-back that we went to a mutual friend’s dinner and became inseparable.”
Jen and Kirst bonded over their mutual passion of getting military spouses connected to one another, supporting them in their relationships, and advocating for military spouse employment.
“The best resource we have is each other – the military spouse. No one crowdsources better than a military spouse,” said Kirst. “So, how do we take what we have in real life and make it virtual? How can we take in-person relationships and make them empowering, encouraging, and resourceful online too?”
What started as a blog has now turned into an amazing online community. With more than 28,000 followers on Instagram, this pair has figured out how to connect and encourage military spouses across the globe.
They have found success in sharing PCS tips, personal vignettes, stories about the successes and challenges of their day-to-day lives, and even highlighting self-care routines that benefit other spouses.
“It’s just been really cool. The personal impact this has all had on us is profound,” said Jen. “Making the move to Alaska two years ago wasn’t scary. I knew I was going to have people to call, I had a Facebook community I could go to when I needed something. It was such a good feeling knowing I already had a community built out due to WAFs.”
Building a Business in Uncharted Territory
Not only have the two been successful in empowering military spouses, they have also been successful as business owners. WAFs is an all military spouse team, and they added their first paid member in 2022.
“The hardest part from my perspective, is that we’re doing something so unique and different. That, in itself, can be intimidating. Which direction do we go? What serves the community the best? We’re inventing the wheel and we’re very protective of this space,” said Kirst. “Jen and I have shed tears over this stuff. It’s so hard when there’s no book or person to ask how they did it.”
In early 2023, they made the jump from “Wives of the Air Force” to “Wives of the Armed Forces.” After hundreds of messages and emails from spouses in other branches, they knew they wanted to expand their community, but they had to find the right people to help them do it.
“We put a call out and we had so many amazing submissions of people who could represent each branch,” said Kirst. “It wasn’t hard to find ‘doers’ in these communities and other women with the same passions as us. Through interviews and conversations, we were able to find the perfect people to help us continue to grow and serve the milso community.”
The Future of the Military Spouse Space
As they look to the future of WAFs, Jen and Kirst’s focus for 2025 is to bring things into real life.
They want to encourage military spouses at every installation to get out and meet each other, to have a relationship like theirs down at the grassroots level – even when planning those meetups can seem daunting.
“Use the adrenaline you have from a recent PCS. Go shake hands and kiss babies in your neighborhood. Go to meetups. Put yourself out there,” said Kirst. “Leverage the virtual community to help yourself in real life.”
The struggle to blend in-real-life community and the virtual community can be difficult, but they have big plans to tackle that next year.
If you’d like to connect with Jen and Kirst, and the overall WAF community, you can find them on Instagram, Facebook, their blog, or email them at wivesofthearmedforces@gmail.com.
You can also join their branch specific Facebook groups to engage more fully with the WAF Community.
Air Force: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wafairforce
Space Force: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wafspaceforce
Navy: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wafnavy/
Marine Corps: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wafmarinecorps
