What We Know About Army Families

This book focuses on the key issues that affect military families when soldiers are deployed overseas, focusing on the support given to military personnel and families before, during and after missions. Today’s postmodern armies are expected to provide social-psychological support both to their personnel in military operations abroad and to their families at home. Since the end of the Cold War and even more so after 9/11, separations between military personnel and their families have become more frequent as there has been a multitude of missions carried out by multinational task forces all over the world. The book focuses on three central questions affecting military families. First, how do changing missions and tasks of the military affect soldiers and families? Second, what is the effect of deployments on the ones left behind? Third, what is the national structure of family support systems and its evolution? The book employs a multidisciplinary approach, with contributions from psychology, sociology, history, anthropology and others. In addition, it covers all the services, Army, Navy/Marines, Air Force, spanning a wide range of countries, including UK, USA, Belgium, Turkey, Australia and Japan. At the same time it takes a multitude of perspectives such as the theoretical, empirical, reflective, life events (narrative) approach, national and the global, and uses approaches from different disciplines and perspectives, combining them to produce a volume that enhances our knowledge and understanding of military families. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, sociology, war and conflict studies and IR/political science in general.

The Army Family: A White Paper, modeled on Army Chief of Staff General John A. Wickham Jr.'s landmark document covering the historically evolving relationship between the Army and the Army Family from 1775 to 1983, adds to this important story by capturing the dramatic change throughout the culture of the Army from 1983 to 2003. Cognizant of the ripple effect of mutual relationships, Army Chief of Staff General Eric K. Shinseki during his tenure committed to bringing General Wickham's vision and promise to fruition by ensuring what he termed Army Well-Being and then recording the further progress benefiting Army families everywhere in his own white paper. In this equally watershed document General Shinseki provides a historical summary, survey, and assessment of changes since 1983; describes the Army Family and its circumstances through 2003; and discusses new commitments for realizing a seamless Army Family system that unites the Army at large in the midst of meeting new strategic challenges in distant lands. The centerpiece of his holistic approach to Army Transformation is family well-being, in his view a compelling institutional imperative if the Army is to succeed in today's unpredictable world.

The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in foreign conflicts for over two decades. The strains that these deployments, the associated increases in operational tempo, and the general challenges of military life affect not only service members but also the people who depend on them and who support them as they support the nation â€" their families. Family members provide support to service members while they serve or when they have difficulties; family problems can interfere with the ability of service members to deploy or remain in theater; and family members are central influences on whether members continue to serve. In addition, rising family diversity and complexity will likely increase the difficulty of creating military policies, programs and practices that adequately support families in the performance of military duties. Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society examines the challenges and opportunities facing military families and what is known about effective strategies for supporting and protecting military children and families, as well as lessons to be learned from these experiences. This report offers recommendations regarding what is needed to strengthen the support system for military families.