Military families

In 1778, a lonely and anxious Abigail Adams had to wait several months to find out if her husband John Adams and their ten-year-old son John Quincy Adams had survived their voyage to Paris, where Adams was serving as a diplomat representing the fledgling United States. Twenty-first century communications between military families no longer rely on postmarked letters; instead they involve email, instant message, and webcam chats, but even modern technology cannot remove the loneliness and anxiety that military families still face, along with the other challenges inherent in a long-distance relationship.

Military families face long deployments, the challenge of one spouse remaining at home, child care concerns, and lack of community support. The nature of military service has changed, but the bravery, comradeship, and sacrifices military men and women make have remained steadfast over the centuries. The modern military has introduced support groups and organizations to help men and women overseas and their family members back home deal with their unique hardships.

Background

Military families have always made sacrifices, beginning with the American Revolution and continuing through the War in Afghanistan and beyond. In the country’s earliest days, women and children left behind when fathers and other male relatives went off to war helped keep the local economies afloat by contributing goods to the war effort and running local businesses. Women sometimes joined the army by disguising themselves as men, and often boys as young as thirteen or fourteen ran away to join the army. This pattern continued into the American Civil War. Women left at home were responsible for running sometimes large farming operations and protecting their families from harm at the same time.

Military families in World War I and World War II shared in the workload and fighting necessary to win the war. Women kept the national economy moving during both World Wars I and II. Extended families lived together to conserve resources, and even though women were still not allowed in combat, they worked in the factories and offices, ferried airplanes, and played a roles as crucial to winning the war as the soldiers on the front lines. They also served in the Army Nurse Corps and in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). More women served in the military during the Vietnam War (but still not in combat positions), but most stayed at home to care for their families. They also formed groups with other military wives and organizations to help Vietnam War veterans.

Women served in unprecedented numbers in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, making up 7 percent of the active forces and 17 percent of the National Guard. Over 40,000 women served in essential combat support positions through the Persian Gulf Region. Women in Desert Storm performed every military duty except fighting in the ground war.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and the resulting global War on Terror changed the face of the United States Armed Forces. Soldiers deploy more quickly and for longer periods than ever before, and an increasing number of deployed soldiers are women According to Pentagon figures, more than two hundred thousand women serve in the active duty military, including sixty-nine generals and admirals. In January 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the military’s official ban on women in combat.

Impact

Allowing women to serve in combat has broadened the definition of military women and wives. Like the traditional military wife, the twenty-first century military wife has to accommodate her husband’s military career with its ceaseless rotation of deployments, but in addition she has to deal with her own deployments and career issues.

Children in military families still face the burden of growing up on military bases and moving to new states or countries frequently as their parent or parents are transferred or deployed. They are often exposed to foreign languages and cultures and learn military culture from the inside out. The United States Department of Defense estimates that more than 15 million Americans are former or current military children, ranging in age from newborn to over 90 years old.

Military bases often support populations of 10,000 or more and are self-contained worlds dominated by military culture. Children growing up in this culture experience different political and legal customs as well as differences in time, measurements, and educational standards. Most military children have positive feelings about growing up in a military family, while a few report negative reactions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder due to a parent killed in combat or the stress of multiple moves and constantly shuttling between the military and civilian worlds.

According to the United States Department of Defense, after a more than a decade of war since 2001, more than 50,000 American soldiers, both men and women, have been wounded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. These figures include some 16,000 severely injured soldiers who a generation ago would have died on the battlefield, but modern medical techniques, body armor, and faster medical evacuations have saved them.

Many of these wounded veterans will spend a lifetime recovering because of the severity of their wounds. The United States Army Surgeon General’s Office reports that since 2001 military surgeons have performed 1,653 major limb amputations. The Department of Defense and the Defense and Veteran’s Brain Injury Center estimate that 22 percent of all combat casualties are brain injuries and 60 to 80 percent of soldiers who have other blast injuries may also suffer traumatic brain injuries.

Another major issue facing today’s military families is the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 80,000 veterans of recent wars have been diagnosed with PTSD. PTSD is correlated with higher rates of unemployment, divorce, domestic violence, substance abuse, homelessness, and suicide than are found in the general population. All of these have negative effects on family life, and consequently the Department of Veterans Affairs has implemented nearly 200 PTSD treatment programs in all areas of the country.

Most military families and combination military and civilian families rally around their wounded members, but caring for them will be a lifetime task. Groups including the National Military Family Organization assist military families in their difficult transition from military to civilian life and the gray areas in between.

Bibliography

Armstrong, Keith, Suzanne Best, and Paula Domenici. Courage after Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and Their Families. Berkeley: Ulysses, 2005. Print.

Blaisure, Karen Rose, et al. Serving Military Families in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print. Textbooks in Family Studies.

Buckholtz, Alison. Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War. New York: Tarcher, 2013. Print.

Friedman, Matthew, and Laurie B. Slone. After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2008. Print.

Hall, Lynn K. Counseling Military Families: What Mental Health Professionals Need to Know. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

National Military Family Association. Web. 20 July 2013.

Pavlicin, Karen M. Surviving Deployment: A Guide for Military Families. St. Paul: Resa, 2003. Print.

Summerall, E. Lanier. “Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD.” US Department of Veterans Affairs. 1 Jan. 2007. Web. 20 July 2013.

United States. Department of Veterans Affairs. “PTSD Treatment Programs in the US Department of Veterans Affairs.” US Department of Veterans Affairs. 17 June 2013. Web. 20 July 2013.

Williams, Rudi. “Military Brats Are a Special Breed.” US Department of Defense. 20 Aug. 2001. Web. 20 July 2013.

“Women in the Military.” Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. 2011. Web. 20 July 2013.