Minot AFB Key Spouse Program: Spouses helping spouses Published April 19, 2011 By MAFB Key Spouse Program MAFB Key Spouse Program MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Air Force Global Strike Command's Minot Air Force Base key spouses were honored with an appreciation social at the Northern Lights chapel annex here April 12. The event was hosted by Col. Douglas Cox, 5th Bomb Wing commander and his wife Lynae Cox, Col. Fred Stoss, 91st Missile Wing commander and his wife Laura Stoss and the Airman & Family Readiness Center. Key spouses are volunteers who are interviewed and appointed by unit commanders to serve as vital communicators between the unit and its families. Key spouses go through 13 hours of training before they can perform assigned duties. Training areas include understanding the Privacy Act, confidentiality, mandatory reporting, taking the Four Lenses course and HeartLink, which covers available resources and information. The Air Force standardized the key spouse program in June 2009 and is available at all Air Force installations. Key spouses are important to the Air Force family because they welcome new members into the unit. They also serve to improve the morale of the entire unit by truly caring for the unit's families' well-being. The key spouse program is a vital link for exchanging information between leadership and families. They provide a peer-to-peer support system to handle military life experiences. These important links also remain visible at unit, base and community events. They provide community information, volunteer opportunities and referral services. The key spouses are on-call to help families during times of separation, such as a deployment or long-term TDY. There are more than 70 key spouse volunteers assigned to Minot AFB who are willing and ready to help families. If an individual does not know who their key spouse is, they can call the Airman & Family Readiness Center at 723-3950 or contact the unit's first sergeant.