A long-time tradition in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune and on other military facilities around the world, Jane Wayne Day was held May 6 on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team hosted the event for unit spouses as a morale booster and to give wives the opportunity to learn what their Soldiers do during training and deployment in a very hands-on way.

The day began with spouses outfitted in military fatigues, civilian clothes, 5-20 Infantry Battalion t-shirts and field helmets. They enjoyed a ride in Stryker vehicles out to the same obstacle course used for Army training.

Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Steven Soika remarked that Jane Wayne Day was an opportunity to build resiliency among individual families and help pull them together as a larger military family. Soika hopes spouses build support networks among each other.

Soika's wife, Jennifer, had participated in a similar event in Florida called "The Swamp Walk." With a laugh, she assured the other spouses that she wasn't necessarily scared, but more excited and really looking forward to rappelling.

Wives were put into teams for a friendly competition and hit the course.

A uniformed father holding a baby carrier led two young children around the obstacle course to watch "mommy." The toddlers smiled and seemed to love it as women ran, jumped, crawled, and sometimes bit the dust. Rallying around each other, the women were quick to offer verbal encouragement and physically assist each other through the harder obstacles of post walking, balance beam and rope climbing.

Hanging belly-up and horizontal to the ground, one woman ran out of steam and stopped midway on a rope climb. Shouts of "Come on, you can do this!" and "You had three babies in Army hospitals! This is nothing," rang out, followed by laughter. The woman mustered her energy, finished and joined her waiting team.

Participating in these Soldier-style training activities seemed to open the eyes of many a spouse. At the end of the obstacle course, an out-of-breath Audra Thain shared, "it was rough. I've got a lot of respect for what my husband does every day."  Thain's husband signed her up for the day without her knowledge, but she shrugged it off. "He's been to a baby shower; I can do this for a day for him."

An infantryman who asked to remain anonymous remarked of the day's activities, "It's a good way for our chicks to see what we go through, though this doesn't even come close to the real thing." The men standing around him nodded, smiling good-naturedly while teams of spouses ran past.

Throughout the day, spouses also got to experience the challenge of scaling a rappel tower, learning about explosives and handling mock grenades on an indoor assault course, eating a lunch of MREs (Meals-Ready-To-Eat), and receiving instruction in some weapons handling and firing.

Jane Wayne Day is intended to be an annual event for the battalion and will be held on the Friday before Mother's Day, which is Military Spouse Appreciation Day.