Dear Santa:
Thank you for bringing my husband home right before Christmas. It is the best Christmas present I could ask for this year. Since my husband and I got engaged in December 2004, we have only been able to spend 2 Christmases together so this will definitely be a special holiday for us!
However, I […]

I received an email today from an Army Commander who had just learned that Paul and I divorced. He told me that he was planning a relationship workshop for his troops, who are currently deployed.
I wrote back, telling him that I thought it was a wonderful - and much needed - idea. Then, as I mulled over my […]

Military Experiment Seeks to Predict PTSD
By Alicia Chang / Associated Press
Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images.
Smiling kids embracing a soldier. A dog sniffing blood oozing from a corpse. […]

The Sensitive Soldier:
Can US troops be rewired to be impervious to trauma? In the wake of Fort Hood, Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum launched a groundbreaking program to eliminate PTSD.
By Gail Sheehy / The Daily Beast
“How am I going to get people to focus not on tragedy, but on resilience?” Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum asks rhetorically […]

Here is a post from Michelle, who is sending her husband, Dave - an Air Force JAG officer - off to Afghnaistan. You can read her blog here.
In the past 8 days, there has been a promotion, a diagnosis of developmental disorder, an ear infection, military paperwork, and Hurricane Ida, but nothing could stop this day […]

It definitely helps me to have a hobby or interest (or two) that can keep me busy while my husband is gone. Running is something that really helps me get through the hard times. It has a spiritual aspect for me that I really cannot explain.
This year I decided to run the Marine Corps […]

Today is Veteran’s Day. And your 33rd birthday. I guess there was no way to avoid thinking about you today.
But the truth is, I think about you a lot.
I think about you every time I update this blog. Every time there’s a story in the news about a soldier that was killed; or about local […]

I am currently on my fifth deployment, but this one is a little different than the rest. First off, I am not in Iraq or Afghanistan, second I had the option to turn this one down, and third we are somewhere in the Caribbean and Central America. I was alerted to this deployment in August, […]

Just because your spouse/partner is deployed, doesn’t mean you are totally alone. (Although, sometimes it can feel like it!) You do have a support system made up of extended family and friends; most of us just don’t take the time to access it when we don’t need it!
My mom was an Army wife. Even though […]

Ideas from a Veteran Army wife about preparing for a deployment (This is her 5th!) You can read more from her blog here.
You would think after 4 year long deployments, I would be an old pro at this, but every deployment is different, and so it’s time to start thinking about this next one.
Gunner hasn’t […]