On Friday March 13, First Lady Michelle Obama made her first official visit outside of Washington DC since the inauguration of her husband as president, a trip to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

She used the opportunity to visit the military families in Fort Bragg, one of the U.S.’s “most combat ready and active military bases.” Since her husband came into office, she has used her new position to lobby for increased wages of military staff, citing statistics that many military families live at or below the poverty line. The First Lady also talked about how the small increase in wages (2.6 per cent) for the military in the current budget is only the first step in changing the lives of the armed forces and their families and communities.

Many people have commented on the lack of funding that goes into the military outside of actual weapons spending in the United States. There is concern especially with state of the medical system for veterans of not only Iraq and Afghanistan, but also surviving Vietnam vets as well. The funding for the bases could be largely improved as well. For example, the visiting center that Michelle Obama met and talked with military personnel and their families had boarded up windows.

The First Lady also commented on the different roles that she and her husband play in the eyes of the American people in her dialogue with ABC’s “Good Morning America”, her first official interview. She seems to understand that while pretty much everything that she does will be widely accepted by people as good because of the predominance of humanitarianism in her position, it is not the same for President Obama.

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