NAVAL STATION MAYPORT, Fla. (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama chose a naval station in the electoral battleground of Florida to announce Wednesday that 2,000 businesses around the country have hired or trained more than 125,000 military veterans and spouses in the past year, exceeding a White House goal of 100,000 by the end of next year.

Mrs. Obama also told a crowd of Navy personnel and their spouses at this Jacksonville base that the same companies have committed to hire or train an additional 250,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014. That includes hiring or training 50,000 military spouses within three years — and helping them keep those jobs as families move from one duty station to another.

"I thought this challenge was pretty ambitious and when we first started out, we only had two companies as our partners," She said. "Soon, those two companies became 20, and then 200 and then 2,000 … These 2,000 companies have not just met our challenge, they've exceeded it."