Children of Conflict

No more repeated deployments. If additional soldiers are needed, then recruit additional soldiers. The present soldiers and their families with these multiple deployments have suffered too much already.

Recent news reports have focused on the emotional needs of our troops and the importance of providing them with resources that are designed to help them identify their own symptoms and access assistance before a problem becomes critical. It is also important that we don???t forget our military families as they also face unique challenges associated with military life. As a military spouse I would like to share a program that many have found helpful ??? Military Pathways [http://www.MilitaryMentalHealth.org]. This program offers veterans, service members, and their families anonymous and free mental self-assessments for a range of emotional issues that are often misunderstood and are hard for individuals to handle on their own. For many this has been the first step towards healing.

Thank you,
Liz Sisto
Wife of former marine

Since I am only a 5th grader, I had no clue about all of the difficulties children of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans face. This brilliantly written article shows that it can cost you your happiness, grades, and friends. Read this article!

Thanks God because you made us diferent persons, Pacific, no involved in senseless wars, Thanks too because blessed me with 3 sons and force to work y support them to be as profetionals with any due money to this goverment ,in order to no be recruited for a war o invade nations abroad and kill inocents for their oil, I can talk with them and be happy of be conducted to a new earth, THANKS JEHOVA for be our GOD, I pray for others and some day they know you as we know you, be GOD for them too, they will be happy as we are, thank for sent you own son JESUS, THE CHRIST to teach us new ways to be, amen.

My dad was in the military for 30 years and his last war was Nam/he was a single Dad long before that was done and while I stayed with my grandparents when he was aboard ship or overseas he would drive 6-8 hrs when he had leave to spend a day or two with me. I never realized until much later in life all he went through to spend that time with me. While it was hard and always has been the thought of hating our country is never there as we are so proud of what our loved ones who serve do/is it hard of coure it is but Freedom is never Free and those who think other wise take for granted that which others have sacrificed for. While it is more in the open now/military families and separation are a fact of life and when you are a part of a militray family you get it in a way that civilians who do not live that life just cannot understand. We may be brats but we are brats who love their country.

There is a huge segment of children of deployed military who have parents in the Army Reserve and National Guard. These children also face multiple year long separations from their parents... yet do not live on bases, and many have very little contact with the military or other children going through deployment. It would be interesting to hear how those children fare in the face of living in the civilian world with little support compared to the children who are living among the military. As the parent of 3, and wife of an Army Reservist gone on his 2nd deployment, I can tell you they are a segment of those affected by deployment that have been forgotten.

As a mom who is currently deployed away from her two small daughters, this article highlights the issues I worry about. Neither of my kids are school age 9yet) but I worry about the impact me and my husband's leaving will have on them down the road. We don't lie to the kids. We tell them we won't be there in the morning when they wake up. And when we told them about R&R, we explained that we wouldn't be home for long. So far, they're doing okay but my mom has taken our oldest to a counselor, just to be on the safe side. The child counselor says she appears to be doing well but we'll just have to wait and see. The hardest part about being gone is not being there when my kids cry and tell me they want to go home. I can only hope we've made the right decision for our family down the road and that our daughters understand why mommy and daddy had to go.
Jessica Scott
jessica@jessicascott.net

From experience I will say that the most important thing parents and schools can do for these children is tell them the truth. Our daughter was 4 when my husband left for 15 months in Iraq. We were truthful with her about what daddy was going to be doing and what might happen. That turned out to be the smartest move we could have made when he was injured 6 months later. I was able to tell her what had happened and her first comment was "At least he isn't dead!" That might strike some people as morbid, but she handled it better than most of her friends did. They were really upset and kept asking if it could happen to their daddy. I couldn't answer them because their mother's were painting a "Golden Fairy Tale" about what their daddy was doing and experiencing. It caused more then a few probelms in her class and peer group.

My father who was a career soldier in the army got deployed when I was 13. His deployment was more difficult on my brother who was just six at the time and he became very attached to me in the subsequent months and I sort of became a semi-father figure for him. My dad's deployment also forced me to emotionally mature much quicker than it would have happened otherwise and very soon I became the "man of the house". I started to take more responsibilities around the house, tutored my brother, helped him do homework, took care of my grand parents and helped my mom little bit with her business of selling life insurance.

My brother-in-law is serving in Iraq now, leaving behind a wife, baby and family who love him. We are all concerned that he will be deployed soon in Afghanistan in another brutal, long-term war. It saddens me everyday that American soldiers are no longer a part of the daily dialog. Americans and the media just talk about how hard it is to tighten the belt. In past wars we made sacrifices and bonded as a nation. What sacrifices are being made to protect our soldiers and bring them home?