NEWS: Army Implements Extended Family Counseling Program

CULTURE: Army Implements Extended Family Counseling Program

The stress put on a family while a member is an enlisted solider in wartime is sometimes unbearable. A soldier can be away for upwards of three years without seeing their family. Recent studies have shown a twenty-one percent divorce rate among enlisted couples, so the Army has created a variety of "marriage enrichment" seminars that help soldiers returning from combat and their families deal with their relationships, the possibility of P.T.S.D., and substance abuse to remedy high divorce rates, domestic violence, and emotionally turbulent soldiers going into combat.

While I think its wonderful that the Armed Forces are finally doing something concrete to help families communicate with their loved ones, perhaps the bigger issue is the stop-loss orders, extended tours, and lack of decent wages that put families on edge. Consider the families living at Fort Campbell.

Looks like the "family values" thing is finally starting to kick in...

"One program being implemented Army-wide teaches couples forgiveness and the skills to communicate. It includes a 40-hour course with lessons on the dangers of alcohol and tobacco and how to recognize post-traumatic stress. Soldiers who complete it are rewarded with promotion points and a weekend retreat with their spouse."

This is the least we owe to citizens who kill human beings in our name. Plato said only the dead have seen the end of war and for two millennia that has proven true. Validating and acknowledging the trauma combatants sustain is a very important step in healing the wounds war leaves. The more people know and understand war and its effects the less people will clamor for it.

Christopher misses the point by diminishing the gains in communication while complaining of constants in the life of a soldier. Even if a tour is a week or a battle only last an hour Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a real and dangerous issue that we should address as a society. The alienation of a person from their family due to haunting memories and experiences is something we can at least try to end.
This is a good thing.

Wow. If this had been around in Vietnam, I can imagine so many of my friends, past and present, actually having the possibility of growing up in relatively healthy environments.

There are still vets out there who haven't a clue as to how to begin to deal with the things they've done, had done to them and seen. People who can't get close to their children because intimacy of any kind opens up wounds they aren't capable of dealing with. It's a broken way to live.

And if counseling people so they don't beat their spouses, lovers and children or abuse them in some other way is the "'family values' thing," then I guess I'm for family values. I never would have guessed.

so, deployment stress doesn't affect officers?

It probably has a noticeable increase in the metrics, but because officers are generally more educated than their enlisted peers, they may have the necessary tools to deal with some of the hardships better.

or....imho

They sweep the truth about officers under the rug because officers are the best and brightest... (former enlistee talking... sorry)

21% is all? I bet the Navy is higher even out of war time.

The fight a soldier has with his/her spouse just before deployment is a legendary & frightening thing.

officers just hide it better and more often. it's less accepted for us to have any sort of 'problem.'

-pb