Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society by 
The Costs of Courage by
The Costs of Courage is one of the very few comprehensive volumes that shed a light on the needs of US military personnel and their families. The authors introduce social workers and other helping professionals to the dynamic warrior culture of the US military and their families and provides practitioners with the cultural competence necessary to successfully interact with members of this culture. This book includes best practices and eclectic approaches that encourage social workers and other mental health professionals to better consider the needs of our military and their families. The text contains the most up-to-date subject matter on social work with military personnel and their families, including thorough descriptions of major conditions suffered by members of the warrior culture in the past and present. Relevant topics such as suicide, sexual assault, veteran issues, and Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, are discussed. The content is accented with a glossary of commonly used military terms and acronyms.
Deployment Experiences of Guard and Reserve Families by
Use of the Reserve Component has steadily increased since the 1990s, but little research has focused on how deployment affects guard and reserve families. This monograph presents the results of interviews with reserve component personnel and spouses, focusing on their deployment experiences and military career intentions. The authors conclude with suggestions on how the Department of Defense can better support guard and reserve families.
Embattled Glory by
Why Aloha to You?Aloha to You is meant to inspire and motivate you to find the power within to live the life you deserve.It is a self-discovering journey to find your true passion, what makes you happy, and how to go about living a meaningful and fulfilling life.Everyone has something unique to offer the world and that something is built off of the foundation of life - Aloha.Follow the author Daniel Aipa's own journey to self-discovery through a compilation of essays that look to empower you to become stronger physically, mentally, and spiritually.Each chapter offers a lesson, rooted in Hawaiian values, to bring awareness of exactly what it is you want out of your life.This book is divided into three parts: Kuha'o (Self-reliance), Mana (Power), and Aloha (Compassion). It can be read in order or in parts depending on where you are and what you need in your own self-discovery.What's unique about this book?During his journey Aipa found what Aloha means to him, and he wants the same for you.With that in mind, he gives Aloha to You.
An Evaluation of Housing Options for Military Families by
Military family housing is a significant-and expensive-benefit, costing the Department of Defense (DoD) nearly $10 billion annually. Because most housing studies have focused on the cost of on-base housing versus the cost of providing allowances for rent
Growing up in Armyville by
It was 2006, and eight hundred soldiers from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) base in pseudonymous ""Armyville,"" Canada, were scheduled to deploy to Kandahar. Many students in the Armyville school district were destined to be affected by this and several subsequent deployments. These deployments, however, represented such a new and volatile situation that the school district lacked - as indeed most Canadians lacked - the understanding required for an optimum organizational response. Growing Up in Armyville provides a close-up look at the adolescents who attended Armyville High School (AHS) between 2006 and 2010. How did their mental health compare with that of their peers elsewhere in Canada? How were their lives affected by the Afghanistan mission - at home, at school, among their friends, and when their parents returned with post-traumatic stress disorder? How did the youngsters cope with the stress? What did their efforts cost them? Based on questions from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, administered to all youth attending AHS in 2008, and on in-depth interviews with sixty-one of the youth from CAF families, this book provides some answers. It also documents the partnership that occurred between the school district and the authors' research team. Beyond its research findings, this pioneering book considers the past, present, and potential role of schools in supporting children who have been affected by military deployments. It also assesses the broader human costs to CAF families of their enforced participation in the volatile overseas missions of the twenty-first century.
Marriage During Deployment by
Since combat operations began in October 2001, more than 2.1 million U.S service members have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and over half of them were married. Marriage During Deployment, a memoir about a military family during wartime deployment, offers a window into the homelife and emotional world of a military family during deployment. During her husband's Army deployment to Afghanistan, Marna Ashburn shows the mother handling everything - teaching the child to drive, attending little league games and school events solo, fixing broken dishwashers and cars, and celebrating holidays without dad. Marriage During Deployment depicts how the children and mother cope during the absence of their military member and how they stay connected to him while he is six thousand miles away from them. But while families try to stay connected during deployment, it can certainly be tough on them, and even tougher on the relationship. The truth is that geographical distance allows habits and coping mechanisms to fall away, revealing some long-ignored issues. In the end, Marriage During Deployment becomes a meditation on marriage, relationships, and identity, prompting the reader to question whether the couple can survive the life-changing year of deployment. The accumulation of missed moments inevitably creates a distance which may prove irreparable. Between the heartbreaking send-offs and the joyful reunions, there's this - a year of separation, distance, challenges, anxiety, and loneliness. While providing you with an honest portrayal of resilient kids and a can-do military wife, Marna Ashburn also reveals the hidden costs of Army service.
Military Deployment and Its Consequences for Families by
War-related separations challenge families in many ways. The worry and uncertainty associated with combat deployments provokes anxiety in family members left at home. Lengthy separations may challenge the personal, social, and economic coping resources of families at home. In this war, thanks to medical advances, many service members who previously would have died of their injuries are returning home to live long, although altered lives. As a result, families are facing the additional challenge of assisting service members who have experienced amputation, traumatic brain injury, and psychological wounds. These challenges are faced not only by service members in the active component of the armed forces, but also by service members in the National Guard and Reserves. In response, the Department of Defense has launched unprecedented efforts to support service members and families before, during and after deployment in all locations of the country as well as in remote locations. These support efforts are focused not only on medical care, but also mental health care and logistical support. Research about families and war tends to move forward in fits and starts associated with major conflicts, and there is currently an increasing flow of family research moving into the scientific domain. Military Families and the Aftermath of Deployment focuses heavily on the aftermath of deployment for families. It is the first compilation of such chapters released in relation to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and includes contributions from leading researchers from diverse disciplines and arenas, including universities, the Veterans Administration, and the Department of Defense, as well as international researchers from Canada, and Croatia, among others. This work will be of use to graduate students and researchers in family studies, social work, counseling, military science, psychology and sociology.
Mission Transition by
Change is a given in the United States military, but the soon to be applied "Blended Retirement System" is a financial change like no other the military has ever experienced. It is a huge deal that will not only affect the wallets of many active duty service members today and certainly 100% of them beginning in 2018, but it could also have a significant impact on future recruiting and retention of our volunteer military force. Mission Transition: Managing Your Career and Your Retirement is a needed introduction of the military's new "Blended Retirement System," representing the big shift in how the DoD manages military retirements. In the process, it encourages service members to adopt the new concept of retirement in the military, improve their own financial literacy, and assume responsibility for their own retirement planning. Finally, it provides new civilian job survival tips and strategies for service members in the process of leaving the military for civilian life. For those who are contemplating joining the armed forces and who wish to better understand the myriad of changes to the overall military retirement system this is the ideal guide.
Occupational Stress and Well-Being in Military Contexts by
Volume 16 of Research in Occupational Stress and Well Beingis focused on how stress and well-being shape the experiences of military personnel both in and out of the combat zone. The book examines the connections between life in or after the military and employee stress, health, and well being. Chapters in this volume include veterans' transitions into the workplace, work-family issues for military couples as well as children of parents in the military, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychopathy and emotion, the role of stress and well-being on performance in the military, resilience and stress interventions in military organizations and the use of drugs by soldiers and veterans as a coping mechanism for chronic pain. The book showcases the work of the best researchers and theorists contributing to this field to provide a multidisciplinary and international collection that gives a thorough and critical assessment of knowledge, and major gaps in knowledge, on occupational stress and well being with a view to shaping future research both in military and civilian research literatures.
Parenting and Children's Resilience in Military Families by
This reference examines the wide-ranging impact of militarylife on families, parenting, and child development. It examines the complex familyneeds of this diverse population, especially as familiar issues such as trauma,domestic violence, and child abuse manifest differently than in civilian life. Expertcontributors review findings on deployed mothers, active-duty fathers, and othermilitary parents while offering evidence for interventions and preventionprograms to enhance children's healthy adjustment in this highly structured yetuncertain context. Its emphasis on resource and policy improvements keepsthe book focused on the evolution of military families in the face of future changeand challenges. Included in the coverage: Impactsof military life on young children and their parents. Parentingschool-age children and adolescents through military deployments. Parentingin military families faced with combat-related injury, illness, or death. The specialcase of civilian service members: supporting parents in the National Guardand Reserves. Interventionsto support and strengthen parenting in military families: state of theevidence. Militaryparenting in the digital age: existing practices, new possibilities. Addressing a major need in family and parenting studies, Parenting and Children's Resilience inMilitary Families is necessary reading for scholars and practitioners interested in parenting and military family research.
Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan by
As of December 2012, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Iraq have resulted in the deployment of about 2.2 million troops; there have been 2,222 US fatalities in OEF and Operation New Dawn (OND)1 and 4,422 in OIF. The numbers of wounded US troops exceed 16,000 in Afghanistan and 32,000 in Iraq. In addition to deaths and morbidity, the operations have unforeseen consequences that are yet to be fully understood. In contrast with previous conflicts, the all-volunteer military has experienced numerous deployments of individual service members; has seen increased deployments of women, parents of young children, and reserve and National Guard troops; and in some cases has been subject to longer deployments and shorter times at home between deployments. Numerous reports in the popular press have made the public aware of issues that have pointed to the difficulty of military personnel in readjusting after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of those who have served in OEF and OIF readjust with few difficulties, but others have problems in readjusting to home, reconnecting with family members, finding employment, and returning to school. In response to the return of large numbers of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan with physical-health and mental-health problems and to the growing readjustment needs of active duty service members, veterans, and their family members, Congress included Section 1661 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008. That section required the secretary of defense, in consultation with the secretary of veterans affairs, to enter into an agreement with the National Academies for a study of the physical-health, mental-health, and other readjustment needs of members and former members of the armed forces who were deployed in OIF or OEF, their families, and their communities as a result of such deployment. The study consisted of two phases. The Phase 1 task was to conduct a preliminary assessment. The Phase 2 task was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the physical, psychologic, social, and economic effects of deployment on and identification of gaps in care for members and former members, their families, and their communities. The Phase 1 report was completed in March 2010 and delivered to the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the relevant committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The secretaries of DOD and VA responded to the Phase 1 report in September 2010. Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan: Assessment of Readjustment Needs of Veterans, Service Members, and Their Families fulfills the requirement for Phase 2.
Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan by
Nearly 1.9 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since October 2001. Many service members and veterans face serious challenges in readjusting to normal life after returning home. This initial book presents findings on the most critical challenges, and lays out the blueprint for the second phase of the study to determine how best to meet the needs of returning troops and their families.
Voices of America by
Voices of America: Veterans and Military Families Tell Their Own Stories collects dozens of personal accounts of military life from World War II to the present day. These narratives from Texas Christian University students, faculty, staff, alumni, and family range from deadly combat to downtime, from family dynamics to life after military service. Although the contributors share a connection with TCU and each experience is unique, they share a common bond with all Americans who have served their country across far-flung zones of conflict and decades of history, and speak with urgent relevance to American society today.
War and Family Life by
This unique resource provides findings and insights regarding the multiple impacts of military duty on service members and veterans, specifically from a family standpoint. Broad areas of coverage include marital and family relationships, parenting issues, family effects of war injuries, and family concerns of single service members. The book's diverse contents highlight understudied populations and topics gaining wider interest while examining the immediate and long-term impact of service on family functioning. In addition to raising awareness of issues, chapters point to potential solutions including science-based pre- and post-deployment programs, more responsive training for practitioners, and more focused research and policy directions. Among the topics covered: * Deployment and divorce: an in-depth analysis by relevant demographic and military characteristics. * Military couples and posttraumatic stress: interpersonally based behaviors and cognitions as mechanisms of individual and couple distress. * Warfare and parent care: armed conflict and the social logic of child and national protection. * Understanding the experiences of women and LGBT veterans in Department of Veterans Affairs care. * Risk and resilience factors in combat military health care providers. * Tangible, instrumental, and emotional support among homeless veterans. War and Family Life offers up-to-date understanding for mental health professionals who serve military families, both in the U.S. and abroad.
When the Warrior Returns by
Nearly two million soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have been deployed in recent conflicts. When the Warrior Returns addresses the practical and psychological needs of the families of these transitioning service members and provides a convenient list of key resources. Combining the knowledge of fifty experts, the book provides answers to questions about the post-deployment transition process, how it affects families, and how family members can help their service members and themselves navigate the transition successfully as a family. These experts provide straightforward answers to questions about the transition process and how it impacts the warrior and their children. A one-stop source of information filled with useful advice, this book is unequalled. The book features a foreword by Patty Shinseki and is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.
Fifty years ago, a group of military spouses gathered around a kitchen table determined to make sure their widowed friends—whose spouses died in war—weren’t forgotten. They marched to the Capitol telling their stories and the National Military Family Association (NMFA) was born.
November is Military Family Appreciation Month—a time when America honors and recognizes those unique sacrifices and challenges family members make in support of their loved ones in uniform. No matter what rank or branch, or where life has taken them, our nation’s military families share the common threads of service and sacrifice..--National Military Family Association.
Image courtesy of Vecteesy