Jess Jones

Director of Engagements for Kingdom Operatives

Service Member's Branch - Army National Guard

Service Member's Status - Veteran - 10 years

What has been your military spouse career/entrepreneur journey so far?

Adam and I started out our marriage in Northern Virginia in 2014. After a month of being married, I decided to adopt an 8 week old puppy, not knowing a few days later we would receive a short notice that he has been accepted to flight school in Ft. Rucker, Alabama and I had to quit my job the next day. That was my first experience where I realized, "Wow, this is what it's going to be like married to someone in the military." Living on base, I quickly had to learn that I have to pull my car over for Reveille each morning. Luckily, I was able to find a job on base within my original career path in nutritional services creating menus and managing the cooks at the child and youth development centers. I learned quickly that removing grits from the daily menu was off limits!

When Adam and I got engaged, we visited Colorado to celebrate and explore/hike to kick off our journey. So after flight school in 2015, we couldn't be more thrilled to be stationed there for the next 5 years. Since Adam was in the National Guard, but still a pilot, it put a lot of strain on our marriage during those years. He worked the 9-5+ and then would fly at night to keep up with his minimums. We had our first daughter, Adalynne, during our time in Colorado. Fast forward to 2020, Adam made the decision to transition out of the military, and since we all know what happened in 2020, we moved back home to Pittsburgh so that we could have our daughter grow up around family during the pandemic.

This is where our story gets bumpy, and life didn't turn out where we imagined it. Adam didn't realize that once he took that uniform off, that he wouldn't quite know who that person was anymore. As I mentioned, our marriage definitely went through a hard time, but in Colorado it was just the beginning. The man I married had a presence in our home now more than ever, but wasn't exactly present. We didn't know it yet, but that's when "The Weapons of Mass Deception" grew stronger.

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Jess, and I am from Pittsburgh, PA. I have 2 daughters, Adalynne and Aspen, who are 7 and 4 years old. I was a military spouse for 6 years to my husband, Adam. We now live in Lakewood Ranch, Florida where we enjoy spending our time at the beach and exploring new restaurants and coffee shops (I am a foodie)!

Tell us about a "typical" day in your professional life.

Since moving to Florida this summer we made the decision to homeschool our girls. So my day usually starts off slow with coffee and reading the bible with my oldest daughter, and then we will transition to some type of physical activity before the homeschool work and business work begin. We are in a season of protecting our peace and slowing down, and I am loving every second of it.

Adam started Kingdom Operatives in 2021, not because it was something he wanted to do but as a Veteran that struggled with mental health, after he overcame what he calls "the silent struggle" he felt the need to share this with current service members and families. Kingdom Operatives (KO) believes that those who fought for freedom should not live without it. KO equips leaders to build mission-effective teams by developing the people and systems that drive lasting performance. Through immersive training, executive coaching, and practical leadership tools, we help organizations strengthen resilience, maximize talent, and lead with greater clarity, confidence, and purpose.

I stepped away from my full time job in a large healthcare system in Pittsburgh in August 2025 where I led a training and development department, to now focus my efforts in helping Adam run our company since he was still working a full time job until May 2026. Our meetings as husband and wife may include discussing logistics for an upcoming workshop at a military unit, reviewing materials for a virtual session, and since it's summer serving our girls 20+ snacks in between meetings.

What has been your biggest military spouse career struggle and how did you overcome it?

At first, I would have said my first transition to Alabama when I had to move from big city life near D.C. to the middle of nowhere in Alabama. But during that time, I met some of my best friends/fellow military spouses, to go through that time together. I still consider them family of mine to this day. So I think the two biggest struggles of mine were setting aside my career growth and acting as a single parent most of the time.

I was and still am a high performer, and I think a lot of military spouses are. We married a high performer, right? I was about to submit my application for my dietetic internship before Adam got accepted to flight school. I went to school to get my B.S. degree in nutritional sciences to become a Registered Dietitian, but flight school changed all of that for me. I was bitter at first, but I knew my new role as a military spouse meant supporting the mission at all costs, and that's what I was called to do. Once Adalynne (Addy) was born, that's when it got even harder. The French toast casseroles that I would wake up early to make Adam on his drill weekends quickly became "here's your coffee to go, I've been up every 2 hours breastfeeding Addy so I'm too exhausted to make you breakfast." Our priorities shifted, and we changed and evolved from those people that got married, but as most marriages in the military, the lack of balance between military and home life caused us to drift.

What role did mentors and sponsors play in your journey?

I unfortunately didn't have too many mentors throughout my military spouse journey, and I think that was due to Adam being in the National Guard. I really only connected with military spouses throughout my time in Alabama. A mentor of mine during that time, Gina, was a god send to me. She was a nurse I worked with and also a military spouse. Having someone to help you understand the commitment that was new to me, what the families go through, and just the ins and outs of the military language was so incredibly helpful for me. I still wouldn't be able to tell you Adam's MOS let alone all of the other acronyms I heard on a daily basis!

How does your career path differ from what you imagined for yourself?

As I mentioned earlier, "The Weapons of Mass Deception", is a book that Adam wrote after we both went through a hard time in our marriage and he had to learn who he truly was without his uniform, something a lot of veterans experience after the transition. He developed a framework and tools that the military has been connecting with in an effort to normalize conversation around mental health and help families and their service member truly live the life they want to live. That's our hope.

Within the 14 years between the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, there were roughly 7,000 service members killed in combat. Within those same 14 years, there have been roughly 73,000 service members and veterans who have taken their own lives. This statistic has stuck with Adam and I and has become our sole purpose for doing what we do at Kingdom Operatives. I never thought that as a family we would be traveling to military bases to talk with units about our story to play a small part in lowering the suicide rate within the military. Our girls are only 7 and 4 years old, but when you ask them what they want to do when they grow up, they will say "I am going to be a KO (Kingdom Operative) and help the people that fight bad guys."

My career path isn't at all what I expected, but it is more than I could have prayed for.

How did military life (PCSing, deployments, trainings, etc) factor into your career decisions?

When Adam and I first started dating in Virginia, I don't think I realized the level of commitment I would be making as a future military spouse. We started our relationship and within a month, he was off to MP school in Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and we started long-distance dating. There were weeks that I wouldn't even hear from him, something that is so common for most military spouses that have their service member deploy. But after I had to alter my career based on Adam's devotion to serving our country, I knew life would never be the same and always be up in the air.

What resources have you found to be useful in your career/entrepreneur journey?

I have always been thankful for the Family Readiness Groups and Strong Bonds retreats through the Chaplains. We have great relationships with the Chaplains that we work with now for Kingdom Operatives "Drift Happens" workshops which is one of the programs we offer to military units.

If you and/or your spouse have transitioned from active duty to your current status, what resource or tool did you find to be the most helpful?

Final word: what are your top tips for other military spouses about navigating a career within the military lifestyle?

The level of support a military spouse has to provide their service member is more than we could have ever known when we all started out in that role. The energy we bring into our home can either build or break it, and to be honest, that's a large load to carry. That's why I always empower the spouses during our workshops, because they are supporting this mission as well with keeping the household and kids afloat. And some have a successful career of their own as well in addition to playing all of the roles within the household.

It's my hope to encourage military spouses to communicate with their service member and become a team. Something we teach is that if you notice one another "drifting" which may mean drifting from the marriage, drifting as a parent, drifting as a friend or daughter/son, etc that it has to be called out and corrected to stay on course. "The course" would be the life that the spouse and service member has discussed and agreed upon that "this is the life we want to live." Something I had to communicate to Adam after he transitioned was that it was my turn. My turn to finally lean into my career more and excel at a new level, which he gladly gave me the space to do. Each step of my career was crucial and necessary for the work that we do now together.

It's possible for spouses to have a strong relationship and beat all odds together. Getting out of the military and transitioning in a career can also include having a peaceful home with a present spouse. We believe that you don't have to get out of the military to live that life, but you do have to work as a team to control the things you can control. That wasn't what I had back in 2020, but fast forward 6 years later and we are proof that veterans and service members with their families can live happy and free.

Listen to an interview with Jess to hear more about her story.

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