Military Families

Abstract

The purpose of this discussion is to describe military families, the associated issues they face during separation, and the supports that are available. The primary goals of such supports are to strengthen the family and to help the service member to be able to focus on his or her mission, with minimal distraction. The ultimate goal is to maximize both service and family members' adaptation to this potentially stressful lifestyle. Note that there is no such thing as a monolithic military family. In most cases, military families are a microcosm of other families in the United States.Military Families

Introduction

The major difference between military and nonmilitary families is that service to the military becomes much more than a job—it becomes a lifestyle choice that has ramifications for all members of the family, not just for the service members themselves. For the purpose of this entry, military family is defined as those members holding military identification cards (typically nuclear families). While more nontraditional configurations certainly exist (e.g., extended family living together or cohabiting but unmarried couples), those members are not typically eligible for formal services through the military system, nor are they counted in demographic reports.

Description

According to a Department of Defense 2007 demographics report, there are over 2.5 million military personnel. This figure includes those in both the Active Duty and the Ready Reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Nearly 15% of the Active Duty forces are women, and about one third self identify as a minority. More than half (55%) of active military members are married, and about 38% have children (40% of whom are under the age of 5 years). A 2005 report from the U.S. Army reveals that nearly two thirds of Army family members live off the military installation, embedded within the civilian community. The vast majority of the Ready Reserve component service members and their families live in civilian communities, often geographically isolated from military installations. This geographic dispersion away from military installations greatly influences the types of formal supports accessible to military families (Wood and Katharine, 1995).

According to recent estimates, there are about 146,000 troops in Iraq and another 38,000 in Afghanistan. Their service has often included multiple deployments—meaning that they have been in war zones for 12 to 15 months, back in the United States for 12 months, then deployed again. The experience of being deployed is obviously a stressful situation for both the military service member and his or her family.

Deployment

A unique stressor to military families is deployment. Deployment occurs when service members are called to serve at locations away from their usual home duty station, without the benefit of family accompaniment. In recent years, this has frequently meant serving in an active war zone. Deployment is often considered a cyclical occurrence as service members and their families are in a constant state of getting ready for the service member to deploy, being deployed, returning from deployment, and getting ready to deploy ...