How will morale be among soldiers spending years overseas while their families are becoming unglued at home? Imagine what it's going to be like trying to get people to join the military in the next few years as these incidents become a part of the fabric of our society?


Spouses, kids endure own agonies of war
Fri Jul 11, 5:55 AM ET

Deployments taking their toll on the families of U.S. troops

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- After Lydia Teutsch puts her two daughters to bed each night, the young captain's wife tidies up her home. Her husband, Christian, is in Iraq, and she knows that at any hour, a casualty officer and chaplain could arrive with terrible news. Somehow, it seems better knowing everything is neat and in its place.

Ten soldiers of the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division, which is based here, have died in Iraq since the war began. Recently there have been almost daily attacks on U.S. forces. For the 10,000 families left behind at Fort Campbell, the specter of bad news never lifts. Preparing for death eases the fear of it.

''If we didn't have a picture in our head of what we would wear, what we would say, what we would eat, we'd lose it,'' Lydia Teutsch says.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with longer and more dangerous deployments, have made military life even tougher for families left behind. Children's grades suffer. Schools counsel students on anger management. Base therapists are busier than ever consoling spouses. Wives ''at their wit's end'' call counseling hotlines at all hours, says Chaplain Maj. David Giammona, director of family counseling here.

''I'm seeing a lot of our spouses stretched very thin emotionally, and I'm seeing a lot of them just hanging on,'' Giammona says.

With their soldiers constantly in harm's way, families learn not only that plans for death never go away, but that plans for new life often go awry....








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