Essay On Military Families

Military families sometimes, depending a lot on the specific job of the military member, experience a great deal of stress when the military member is preparing for a deployment. Especially in the case of protracted deployments, such as a one-year unaccompanied deployment to the Demilitarized Zone on the Korean Peninsula, or a nine-month deployment at sea aboard an amphibious ship, or deployment to a combat zone in Afghanistan or Iraq, the stress on families can be enormous. Spouses that are accustomed to having both parents taking care of the home and children suddenly find themselves doing both alone, most of the time while also working a full- or part-time job.
Even when the military member is not at war, the families often deal with
stresses such as frequent moves or the absence of a parent. In the time prior to a deployment, the military member is usually devoting long hours to preparations for the deployment workup. Training in preparation for deployments can be grueling and come at the expense of quality time spent with one's family. Military families face a number of challenges before, during, and after deployment. This emotional cycle of deployment begins when news of deployment is released to the family. It usually will start with a short period of strong emotions, such as fear, anger, and resentment. As the deployment grows closer, a period of detachment and withdrawal can occur. This can happen to prepare for the spouse being physically gone. The difficult part, however, comes with the military member's departure from home. The emotional stress on families back home knowing their loved ones are in a war zone where death or injury can occur at any time cannot be overstated. That kind of stress combined with the emotionally and physically demanding requirements of caring for children while working a job can often be too much for the spouse to take, resulting in tensions between spouses, if communication to the military member is available. This can make his or her job more difficult.
Some military jobs -- known as "military occupational specialties," or MOSs -- are more demanding than others. Special Operations Forces, for instance, often deploy with little or no advance notification with the certainty that the mission will be dangerous. Individuals who aspire to and attain membership in the SEALs, Army and Air Force Special Operations are uniquely qualified mentally as well as physically for the demands of those positions. For spouses, back home, however, the stress of rarely seeing one's husband and, when the husband is around, rarely being able to enjoy quality time together because of training demands and a mental preoccupation with preparing for the next mission can be too much to bear, resulting in alcohol abuse and/or divorce.
The post-deployment situation can also be stressful.
The initial joy of being reunited with one's spouse following a long deployment can be gradually eroded, by the sudden presence of another authority figure in the home. The spouse who does not deploy has grown accustomed to taking care of the children and home in his or her own manner. To suddenly inject another parent, with his or her own ideas of how the children should be handled, into the home can be enormously stressful. Readjustment following deployment takes time. Even if your service member has been called up before, you may find that new challenges arise with each reunion. The children, similarly, have grown accustomed to life without that other parent, and may resent the military member's sudden, possibly unwelcome intrusion in their personal lives.
While the military member is at home adjusting to life again, there can come an impact of PTSD and other mental health problems on families. Many service members returning from deployment to the recent conflicts are reporting family adjustment issues. Some Veterans report shouting with, shoving, or pushing current (or former) partners. Some Veterans say that their partner or children are afraid of them. When the common reactions to war don't get better over time, or get worse, it may indicate more serious problems. If reactions are impacting life at home, work or school it is time to seek some sort of
help.