Jeremy Hilton: U.S. Military’s First Male Spouse of the Year

Military Spouse Magazine honored the dad for his stay-at-home work with disabled daughter.

When Deanie Dempsey, whose husband is the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took the stage at the Marine Barracks Washington earlier this month to announce 2012's “Military Spouse of the Year,” she fumbled for her words. There were six nominees—five women and one man—and Dempsey clearly had trouble finding the appropriate gender-neutral pronoun, in order to not blow the identity of the winner. Finally, she gave up. “I have confidence that he will do his fellow spouses proud,” she said. The room collectively gasped.

This was, after all, decidedly a ladies' luncheon. The hot-pink gift bags held tubes of shimmery eye shadow and sparkly necklaces. But this year, for the first time ever, the spouse of honor was not a wife, but a husband: Jeremy Hilton, a cheerful, mustachioed fellow. Taking the podium, Hilton cracked a joke, “Now, we've obviously established that this is not a beauty contest.”

Jeremy Hilton: U.S. Military's First Male Spouse of the Year

Topics: male military spouse Military Spouse Magazine Military Spouse of the Year Jeremy Hilton