When service members hang up their uniform for the last time, the world expects them to reintegrate seamlessly. But the truth is, transitioning out of the military isn’t just a professional shift–it’s a total identity upheaval for both the veteran and their family.
Michael Schindler knows this all too well. As the founder of Operation Military Family, he has spent more than 10 years guiding thousands of veterans and their loved ones through the emotional and often isolating maze of post-service life. His goal? Helping them uncover a new mission, rediscover who they are, and heal what the battlefield never touched but deeply affected: the family unit.
“We help transitioning service members and their families identify a new mission, new purpose, [and] new identity when they get out,” Schindler says.
Schindler, a Navy veteran himself, was inspired to create the organization after his best friend was deployed to Afghanistan. Witnessing the emotional toll on families back home, he penned his first book, Operation Military Family, shining a light on the strain that few wanted to acknowledge: the silent weight carried by military spouses.
“In many cases, the wives had to be the husband and wife. They became the new general of the family,” he recalls. “Very few people talk about that story.”
But Operation Military Family doesn’t stop at storytelling. What began as pre- and post-deployment marriage workshops quickly evolved into a comprehensive support system focused on what Schindler calls “the core.”
“If we can help someone identify who they are…what really matters to them…we can change everything,” he says. “Let’s help people identify their true mission and purpose, and from that, they’ll be able to identify who they are.”
Over 10,000 veterans and family members (Schindler says they stopped counting after 10,263) have gone through their programs. Not every story ends neatly, but many end with healing, which proved to be the case for a veteran named Jack, whom Schindler met during an equine therapy session. Jack and his wife were struggling in their marriage. Though Jack’s marriage didn’t survive, the program helped him rebuild his relationship with his daughters and sparked a personal spiritual awakening.
To some, that may not sound like a success story, but Schindler calls it a win.
“In many ways, people would say that that’s not a success story, but there was a rebuild of who Jack was, and if you were to call him today, he would say that that was a catalyst for him meeting Christ,” Schindler says. “It brought him closer to his daughters; he and his ex (now) have a good relationship. They can talk now, and that wasn’t the case before. It was a marriage that was suffering in silence, and now it’s a family that’s becoming whole. Whether they get together again, I don’t know, but I look at that and say, in many ways, that it’s a success story.”
The biggest challenge veterans face, Schindler explains, is writing a new story–one they’ve never been taught to write without the structure of the military. When that structure disappears, many veterans are left with anxiety, isolation, and a deep sense of loss.
“They’ve never had to decide who they are,” he says. “The military wrote that story for them, and now they have to figure it out on their own.”
Still, Schindler remains hopeful. With the proper support and stronger communities, he believes outcomes can change, especially around mental health and suicide prevention – and it’s people like him who are working mightily each day to push this type of initiative forward.
“Somebody that shines in other people’s lives (and) somebody that encourages and uplifts someone else…that is mighty to me,” Schindler says of what being mighty means to him. “Because that’s what the world needs.”
And in his own quiet way, that’s exactly what Schindler is doing–shining a light for thousands of military families navigating the long road home.
