As deployment possibilities loom,
Army offering families support
By Jeremy Kirk, Stars and
Stripes
Thomas Forrest |
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Thomas Forrest’s 18-year-old son Christopher will soon
be in an artillery unit, a young soldier gaining a footing in an Army poised for an
uncertain war.
His son, Forrest said, is worried.
"He’s really shaken up by what just happened," said Forest, a deployment
and mobilization specialist with Army Community Services.
"I told him, you know, you are going to be OK because the Army, the military
provides such a family-oriented environment, that you won’t be the only one there.
The leaders are there to help you understand the necessity of deployments and of defending
this country and what we believe in."
Spouses at Fort Bragg, the second-largest Army post in the United States, share the
concern. The constant media images on television and talk of war has left family members
unsure about where their loved ones may go and the challenges they might face.
"Until something is done, I think the anxiety level will stay about the same,
because we don’t know what’s going to happen," said Ellen Bowman, Family
Readiness Group Coordinator with ACS.
Stacy Aldridge |
That’s why the Army is trying to acclimate spouses to the reality of a long
deployment and the preparation they can do to keep families running smoothly.
Units throughout the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg are educating servicemembers
through classes with family-readiness tips.
The post has more than 40,000 soldiers, many of whom didn’t go through the trials
of the Persian Gulf War. The promise of a swift response to the attacks has left families
scrambling to prepare.
"What we are seeing two weeks ago has never happened to America to this degree, so
it’s really new to everybody," said Forrest, a retired sergeant first class.
"There are reasons for the stress that’s happening right now."
The crumbled remains of the World Trade Center and the damaged Pentagon and loss of
lives have compounded anxiety for servicemembers, who have to deal with the loss of life.
But the potentially lethal future also looms.
"Military spouses have to deal with that and know that it might happen to them in
a few months," said Stacy Aldridge, whose husband Marty is an Army sergeant.
Mariko Kobe |
When Mariko Kobe’s husband went to Bosnia, she kept a scrapbook for their
3-year-old daughter. Every e-mail, letter and card was saved to give her child a sense of
connection with her father, Kobe said.
Other parents have used a globe with pins to show where the parent is deployed, an
easy, fun exercise that helps children deal with deployments. Some children might feel
they drove the parent away and act out their frustration behaviorally rather than
verbally, Bowman said.
It’s important to recognize the signs and actively involve the child, she said.
"You start to assist them to express their feelings that they feel behind the
actions," Bowman said.
Being married to the military is hard, said Erica Poe, who husband Michael is a first
lieutenant. It means missed dinners and rapidly changing schedules.
"It’s a very hard pill to swallow to know that you share your husband with
the United States," Poe said. "I transitioned very roughly into the
military."
Even more difficult is the prospect of war.
"Some people you can be honest and tell them you have to understand that your
husband has to deploy you know that’s what he’s doing in the Army, that is his
job in the military," Kobe said. "Some people you have to be a little more
gentle with them. You don’t want to scare them away."
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