About Us

Military Living® Publications is the largest travel publisher of military travel information for all uniformed services members, active and retired, and their family members.

Military Living® Publications Mission Statement

At Military Living® Publications, we understand that military life can be dangerous and challenging. We know that when service members get time off, they want to relax and travel, and they can do this by utilizing their military benefits. This is where Military Living® Publications comes in. Since 1967, we have published information to help military families use their benefits to travel around the world. We do this by using our website militaryliving.com, our various travel guides, and our maps to help communicate to our military readers how they can travel, shop and live using military facilities. We are a good news publisher, and we always do everything we can to put forth positive news of the American military. The Military Living® Publications staff are all military retirees and spouses and consider it their mission to help our readers make the most of their military travel and benefits.

Dale Didion, CEO

Dale is R.J. Crawford’s brother-in-law and had started following the development of Military Living® Publications when it was operated by its founder and R.J.’s mother, Lela Ann Crawford. Dale and his wife Catherine, and children Ashley and Ryan were featured on the cover of the Military Living® Magazine when they were stationed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Dale is proud to take the lead as CEO following R.J.’s passing and wants to expand its scope to represent the evolving interests and needs of service members and their families more fully. A great deal has changed in the lives of service members since the founding of Military Living® Publications over 50 years ago. While maximizing military benefits to travel around the world
remains a key focus, we recognize that military families are demanding more information including how to gain access to mental health benefits; the expansion of recreation information to include not only travel but also heathy living and exercise; useful tools and perspectives on dealing with the stressful reality of raising a family today; juggling family and job; care of elderly parents; and finding jobs that challenge and reward one’s military service.

Dale brings to Military Living Publications a deep understanding of government service having spent over ten years in the federal government where he worked on Capitol Hill, in the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the United States Treasury Department where he was posted as a diplomat in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Following his government service, Dale has spent over twenty years in corporate life as an executive of multi-national public affairs companies, many involved in working with US military officials domestically and overseas. As always, Military Living® Publications staff are military retirees and spouses and consider their
mission to help our readers make the most of their military career and benefits, and we seek to provide value-added advantages to membership.

Amanda, Accounting

Amanda is our Bookkeeper, wholesale account manager and all around utility player. She is a 20 year retiree of the U.S. Army. She started her career as an MP and finished up in the Jacksonville US Army Recruiting Battalion as the Operations/Training NCO for the Jacksonville Army Recruiting Company.

After retirement she found her niche working behind the scenes in a supportive capacity for small business owners in her position as a Freelance Virtual Assistant. She joined the Military Living® Publications Family in early 2012. Amanda is a passionate advocate for the needs of homeless and at-risk female veterans.

Amanda is married to her husband Michael. They have 5 children and 3 grandchildren. She enjoys traveling, exploring local breweries and wineries along the way, is a self described coffee snob, a kayak enthusiast, and can usually be found spending time with her dogs curled up on the couch with a good book.

Nicole, Editor

Nicole began working as an editor for Military Living® in May of 2020. She works to keep the Military Living® publications that we all know and love up to date, and shares with you the latest information on Military travel. She is a New Jersey native, an active-duty Navy wife, and a mother of 2 (plus 3 fur-babies).

She graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2006 and met her husband in Connecticut. Since then, she has lived all over the east coast, west coast, and Guam, thanks to her Navy husband and his various duty stations. Her love of history and the military began at a young age, watching WWII documentaries on the History Channel with her father, and hearing war stories from her grandfather, who was stationed aboard the USS Herndon (DD-638).

While not working or taking care of her rambunctious youngsters, in her spare time she enjoys reading, birding, gardening, and photography.

Nicole can be reached directly via email at Nicole@militaryliving.com.

Don, Customer Service

Don joined the team in May 2024 as our Customer Service Representative. He began his Military Career in the United States Army at Fort Knox Kentucky for basic training followed by advanced training located at Fort Lee Virginia Quartermaster School. He completed the rest of his service assigned to 121 Signal Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas.

He attended Florida State University where he studied business and spent his corporate career managing Accounting and Finance Departments. It was during this time that he got involved with Military Support Groups at the VA Medical Centers in Washington, DC as well as West Palm Beach, FL, helping fellow Veterans.

As a native South Floridian, he enjoys hobbies including enjoing the beach and everything above and below the water as well as college sports, specifically Florida State Football!

Alex, Bookkeeper

After a time away from the company, Alex came back to Military Living as our Bookkeeper in July of 2025. Throughout her years connected to the company, she has also worked on the Customer Service and Editorial teams. She currently helps administrate some of the back end of the business and enjoys the quiet and detail-oriented work in the Accounting department.

A long term resident of Florida, Alex is the daughter of two retired Army veterans, and moved throughout her early childhood as a result. She is an alumna of Florida State University where she studied Exercise Physiology and twirled on the Majorette Line with the Marching Chiefs. She still passionately cheers on the Seminoles during the College Football season.

Alex is married to her husband Jackson, and they enjoy running, hiking, and playing board games at local breweries together. Alex is also an avid reader of fantasy novels, enjoys cooking and learning about other cultures through their cuisine, and has dreams of one day seeing Mt. Everest in person.

Zach, Customer Service

Zach is our Customer Service department, helping out our readers behind the scenes and handling order fulfillment.

Zach joined the Military Living Family in October of 2018. He is an Army brat, car enthusiast, and fan of all things penguin. Zach is an active volunteer with his church AV team and prefers animals to people.

In Memoriam,
RJ Crawford, Publisher, 40 years at Military Living®

It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that we here at Military Living® announce the passing of our President & Publisher, William "RJ" Crawford, Jr. RJ dedicated the majority of his adult life to Military Living®, the company created by his mother, Lela Ann Crawford, to serve the needs of military travelers at a time when information on military travel was a well kept secret and her husband, William Roy Crawford Sr. was deployed to Vietnam. RJ is preceded in death by his parents who passed in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

RJ was passionate about serving the needs of the military travel community with travel news updates, websites, and travel guides. He loved biking country roads and budget travel with his beloved wife, Liz, and was very involved with his church and community activities. RJ meant a great deal to the company, our staff, his family and his community. He will be sorely missed.

Many of you, our readers, our customers, our military travel community, have been with us for a long time and know the Crawford family personally, so we wanted to share this information with you also. Thank you for your loyalty to Military Living® and the Crawford Family throughout the years.