GOWEN FIELD, Idaho — The Idaho National Guard now offers free on-site child care to Guardsmen during drill weekends at Gowen Field as part of a pilot program. The program aims to help families balance child care and training.
- The pilot program started in January of 2024 and is open for families to use on many drill weekends during training.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Senior Master Sergeant Lora King is dropping her two sons off at daycare while she goes to work on a drill weekend at Gowen Field.
“Right here is kind of our simulated aircraft set up for our patient care, it’s essentially an ICU in the sky,” said King, who is a respiratory therapist on a Critical Care Air Transport Team for the Idaho National Guard.
She commutes all the way from Washington state for training.
“I drive without stopping, it’s about seven hours. So I have two little ones and so we have to stop frequently," said King.
The Pilot Program — which started in January — offers on-site child care services for guard members during drill weekends, for parents who would have difficulty making it otherwise.
“It’s been amazing, especially right now because my husband is active duty, he’s deployed. And so I don’t have any childcare set up at home and I especially don’t have childcare set up here, so when I come out for drill weekends it has been such a huge stress relief,” said King.
“We’re averaging about 35 participants per drill weekend, to date I think we’re at roughly about 300-330 people that have utilized this," said First Lieutenant Joshua Seward, who is the State Family Programs Director for the Idaho National Guard.
He tells me programs like this help with member retention.
“What’s the reason why a lot of these people are getting out? And sometimes it’s as simple as childcare... We’ve trained them so well and to see them go away for something that’s preventable like this, is a shame. So I’m really, really glad we’re able to do this," said Seward.
“People still want to serve the military and also have a family at the same time, so I feel like that is enabling people to still maintain those two things," said Technical Sergeant Taylor Altrichter, who works in Cyber Defense Operations for the Idaho National Guard.
She and her husband Jared are a dual military family — both working different roles at Gowen Field. They tell me this program helps them spend more time as a family with their son Westin.
“I think he likes coming on base with Mom and Dad like, 'hey we’re going to work' and so when we show up together he really enjoys it... This morning he literally just talked about how he loves this better than his other daycare," said Altrichter.
