Friday, Sep. 11, 2009

2 wars weigh on S.C families

Multiple deployments have impact on the home front

America’s two wars since the 9/11 terrorist attacks — eight years ago today — have stressed the lives of thousands of S.C. military families, straining marriages and hurting children.

These issues pile on top of the personal struggles of many once-deployed service members, still mending from physical and psychological wounds.

“Families are hurting; the soldiers are hurting,” said Lt. Col. Clarence Bowser, director of the S.C. National Guard’s Family Services Program. “We’re asking more of the same people — to go again and make a sacrifice — and that affects the family even more.”

To address the problem, the Pentagon has put together a bevy of services designed to help troops, spouses and children.

The programs, provided by the Defense Department through the S.C. National Guard, were created in the wake of a number of studies that found deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq were tearing at the fabric of family life.

Since 9/11, there have been 9,000 deployments from South Carolina, said Col. Pete Brooks, spokesman for the S.C. National Guard. Some troops were called up for homeland security missions just hours after terrorist planes crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

It’s unclear how many of S.C. Army Guard’s 9,700 soldiers have deployed multiple times. But when the Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team left for Afghanistan in May 2007 with 1,600 troops, about a third of its soldiers had deployed at least once before.

Multiple deployments impact the home front because the spouse left behind has to take on both parents’ roles in raising the children and managing the household.

Researchers have found children suffer, too.

A June report from the Pentagon said 67 percent of Guard and Reserve spouses reported an increase in their children’s level of fear and anxiety.

The same report found the academic performance of Guard and Reserve children dropped 38 percent and there was a 34 percent increase in behavioral issues at school.

Guard and Reserve members continue to make up a significant portion of U.S. forces. About 11 percent of the total U.S. forces in Iraq are Guardsmen and reservists, according to a Pentagon study. In Afghanistan, Guardsmen and reservists made up 21 percent of U.S. troops.

But returning home tends to be harder for Guardsmen and reservists than for their active-duty counterparts, according to Pentagon studies.

Challenges the Guard and Reserve members face include:

nReturning to their hometowns instead of military bases and not being surrounded by members of the unit with which they served.

• Facing the immediate expectation of slipping back into the “old life.”

• The perception that they are seen as having taken “time off” to serve.

‘YOU’RE GOING AWAY AGAIN’

For the families, the best approach to coping with deployments is staying in touch, being flexible and sheer grit.

“If you don’t deal with it well, then you’re not going to be a spouse for very long,” said Ann Meyer, whose husband, Lt. Col. Dave Meyer, is an F-16 pilot for the S.C. Air National Guard and veteran of three deployments since 9/11. “It’s just a part of the job that you sign up for.”

Fiona Varner’s husband, Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Varner, has spent a year each in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004.

Having five children, going to college and running a family ministry, Fiona Varner said she has to stay focused on the task at hand.

“I’ve taught myself to keep moving forward, regardless,” said Varner of Moncks Corner. “There’s no stagnation.”

For Lt. Tony Hedrick of Columbia and his wife, Jennifer, it’s important to support each other in their professional pursuits as well as raising their two children, ages 8 and 14.

“Jennifer is a treasure to me,” said Hedrick, who was an infantry platoon leader in Afghanistan with the Guard’s 218th. “Most important, she’s a friend first.”

To keep problems on the home front to a minimum, parents must be on the same page about how to raise their children, said Jennifer Hedrick.

“The children know that Mommy and Daddy always work together,” Jennifer Hedrick said. “They also know Daddy is counting on us to take care of ourselves.”

The days and weeks after service members return home can be the most turbulent as they try to fit back into family life, researchers said.

That’s because the spouse who stayed behind usually has become more independent, handling all the jobs of running a household, from paying bills to getting the car repaired.

“One of our struggles is always when I get back I’m a wrench in that routine, and we usually end up in an argument or two as I try to get back into being a part of running a household,” said Lt. Col. Meyer of Columbia.

Rodney Varner said he took others’ advice and tried not to “rush things” when he returned from a deployment.

“But most of us don’t like that waiting period,” he chuckled.

The toughest part for service members could be before they leave.

Lt. Col. Meyer’s unit, the 169th Fighter Wing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, is scheduled to deploy early next year to Iraq.

“As we’re already talking about when we’re going to leave next, my 13-year-old is showing signs that she’s upset,” Meyer said.

“ ‘You’re going away again,’ ” Meyer quoted his daughter, emphasizing “again.”

“That part stinks,” he said.

‘TAKING CARE OF OUR SOLDIERS’

To counter problems faced by Guardsmen and their families, the Defense Department launched its family service program in 2007, Bowser said.

The program offers counseling for couples and children, Bowser said. It also provides financial help or connects service members with federal and state agencies that might be able to resolve issues.

Some 9,000 Guard families have taken advantage of various services, said Bowser, a veteran of the Afghanistan war.

Guardsmen and reservists are at a disadvantage because they live in communities across the state and might not have ready access to services offered at military bases, Bowser said.

His staff includes family life consultants, a child and youth consultant, and a behavioral health specialist.

The office also has a Red Cross representative and a “Military One Source” consultant, whom troops and their families can contact with everything from health insurance to finding child care.

“We’re trying to do a better job of taking care of our soldiers,” Bowser said. “A lot of it is education because a lot of people don’t know how far we have come in a short period of time.”

Reach Crumbo at (803) 771-8503.

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