Military Support

Just recently I had finished working on a news story about the struggles of our nation’s military families. Previously to working on this story I only had limited knowledge, but some assumption, on just how much the families go through when our troop deploy to a war zone. As I thought about the struggles, the normal stuff popped into my head, such as the stress of whether they can pay their bills, raising the children alone, maintaining the household alone, and even emotional changes. But the things people don’t talk about or maybe they just don’t realize, such as myself, is besides all the other stuff like financials is the more serious stuff like the worrying for the safety of the family member. The fear of the unknown is a powerful thing and it can take a huge toll on a person’s health. A long deployment can put a major strain on spouses separated during long deployments and it can be worse after multiple deployments. 

 Part of my story allowed me the opportunity to interview two women, Jenna and Judith that had previously been through deployments of not only their husbands but also their children. As I interviewed, both of these ladies separately, they got a little emotional as they answered my questions about their families and how they handled the departure of their loved ones. They spoke of their life during the Vietnam War and how the world was while their husband was deployed. Jenna referred to Vietnam as a “nasty place” and spoke of the horrible treatment the troops received when they returned home. Some of that treatment involved people spitting on troops in public and calling them things like “baby killers.” During that war she spent her share of worrying and stressing over the unknown. One of the things that got her through was praying to God to look over him. 

The other woman, Judith, spoke of how she comes from a big military family. Her husband served in Vietnam just like Jenna’s did.  He served multiple tours before finally coming home for good. She also saw the deployment of her two nephews and her son. They mostly served during the Gulf Wars. She too spent he fair share of worrying for her family as they served in a dangerous place. She got very emotional as she told me a story about when her son came back from the Middle East. Judith went to a party and was expecting a phone call from her son who was supposed to be heading to Germany to return to his base.  She waited and waited anxiously for his phone call so she would know he was safe.  As she walked through the kitchen of the farm house of her friend’s house someone called out to her “hi Mom, I’m home!” and she began to cry. She didn’t know it at the time but her family had planned the whole thing and her best friend secretly went to pick up her son from the airport in Philadelphia. Just as told me of this story she began to cry and I could tell even after all these years that the Gulf War had ended she will always treasure that moment. 

The reason I bring up these stories is to share something important that many people tend to overlook and that is the struggles and emotions that military families go through. I asked both ladies what is the best thing that people can do to help these families and both answered with the same answer. Their answer was pure and simple, maybe even simplified. The best thing we can do is just give these troops and especially their families our support. Support them by being there for them, let them know they are not alone and your there if they need to talk. For the spouses left behind with the kids, then offer to watch the kids for as little as a few hours so the mother or father can have some much needed time alone to collect their emotions and thoughts. This will even give the kid a chance to maybe talk to you about stuff they don’t want to talk to their parents about.Sometimes it is just the little things that you do for them that will make a world of difference.You can even donate time, money, or other resources to organizations that support the troops as well.  Here is a great site to find an organization to help the troops, Troop Support. Some other sites are VFW, USO, and the National Military Family Association.