wrote this for a political action group but thought i would share
I am an the wife of a US soldier. I am the person people forget about when politicians speak about the "toll" the war has taken on our soldiers and our country.
The Army has taken my husband for 20 out of the 42 months total we have been enlisted. He is about to leave again and is being told 15-18 months this time around. You do the math. That will mean he has been gone roughly 60% of the time we have been an Army family. This may be a political game to those in D.C., but to me it's my life. I have two boys who need their Daddy home and who do not understand why he has to leave us again. I have a need as a wife to be able to hold my husband in the flesh, not to only touch a likeness of him on a monitor and hear his voice crackling over a overloaded internet network. If he gets to come home for R&R (what the military calls "Rest and Recovery") he will be home for 2 weeks - just long enough for the kids to get used to him being home, then *poof* away he goes again, back to the land of few phone calls and grainy images on a computer screen.
It is a disaster over there in Iraq. The entire country is aware of it. Bush's ratings are down. Troop morale is low, although your country's dedicated soldiers will never tell you that. But they want to come home. They need to be home more often than they are. This will be my husband's second time in Iraq, but we know people who are going over for the third or fourth time since the war started. You cannot repeatedly deploy the same troops to that region without it taking a toll on them and their families. We are lucky that we have survived the frequent separations and that no harm has come to my husband. But it feels like Russian Roulette sending him over there a second time with a civil war going on. I fear for his safety, both physical and mental. I worry about the toll it is taking on my children to be without a father so often. Am I doing enough on my own to fulfill both roles? Will my eldest, who is five, melt down emotionally like he did last time Daddy was gone? Will my youngest, who is three, be more affected this time because he is old enough to understand that Daddy is gone? Will I make it again without having a complete breakdown? I pray daily for women like myself who have to endure this and I just wish my prayers for ending the war would be answered.
The Army has taken my husband for 20 out of the 42 months total we have been enlisted. He is about to leave again and is being told 15-18 months this time around. You do the math. That will mean he has been gone roughly 60% of the time we have been an Army family. This may be a political game to those in D.C., but to me it's my life. I have two boys who need their Daddy home and who do not understand why he has to leave us again. I have a need as a wife to be able to hold my husband in the flesh, not to only touch a likeness of him on a monitor and hear his voice crackling over a overloaded internet network. If he gets to come home for R&R (what the military calls "Rest and Recovery") he will be home for 2 weeks - just long enough for the kids to get used to him being home, then *poof* away he goes again, back to the land of few phone calls and grainy images on a computer screen.
It is a disaster over there in Iraq. The entire country is aware of it. Bush's ratings are down. Troop morale is low, although your country's dedicated soldiers will never tell you that. But they want to come home. They need to be home more often than they are. This will be my husband's second time in Iraq, but we know people who are going over for the third or fourth time since the war started. You cannot repeatedly deploy the same troops to that region without it taking a toll on them and their families. We are lucky that we have survived the frequent separations and that no harm has come to my husband. But it feels like Russian Roulette sending him over there a second time with a civil war going on. I fear for his safety, both physical and mental. I worry about the toll it is taking on my children to be without a father so often. Am I doing enough on my own to fulfill both roles? Will my eldest, who is five, melt down emotionally like he did last time Daddy was gone? Will my youngest, who is three, be more affected this time because he is old enough to understand that Daddy is gone? Will I make it again without having a complete breakdown? I pray daily for women like myself who have to endure this and I just wish my prayers for ending the war would be answered.