A Central Texas woman is being recognized for all that she does for our military.
Marta Rivera Diaz was one of 400 people nominated for The Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year Award and she is now officially the Fort Hood recipient.
"The Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year Award, it recognizes the 1.1 million military spouses around the world," Diaz said.
Which is why she is proud to have earned that title for Fort Hood.
"It was shocking, very humbling because somebody had actually acknowledged, somebody had been watching what I was doing," Diaz said.
Which is a lot, in addition to writing a cookbook and starting her own food blog, Diaz is the Family Readiness Group leader for her husband's unit and does what she can daily to help other spouses prepare for deployments.
"The thing that I am most proud of is taking care of our soldiers' families and letting them know that they have somebody here to do life with," Diaz added.
And not only does Diaz serve our military as a volunteer, but once as a soldier herself.
"I was able to get the experience of a soldier... that helps me further in my work with soldiers," Diaz said.
The experience even helped her understand the career of her husband of almost 19 years, 1SG Hector Rivera Diaz, who she said supports her just as she supports him.
"Because he knows that the family is the backbone of the soldier you know he makes sure that he supports my dreams and my goals just like I support his career so, he's a good cheerleader to have," Diaz said.
And with the support of her husband, her two kiddos and her military community, Diaz said this is only the beginning.
"This is just a springboard. We have lots of stuff to do after this, this is just a start," Diaz said.
Diaz added that her main focus is to encourage military spouses to continue to pursue their goals and careers. She said the most important thing is for a spouse not to lose themselves while supporting their war-fighter.
Diaz will head to Washington D.C. In May to accept her award alongside winners from other military installations.
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