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The men, women and problems now coming home from Iraq
WITHIN certain military circles, ?Fort Bragg? is a code word for what the stress of combat can do to a man. In 2002, the murders of four military wives by their soldier husbands within six weeks at the base in South Carolina prompted the army to take a hard look at how combat affects troops and their families: three of the Fort Bragg soldiers had returned from special-forces duty in Afghanistan. Two of the men committed suicide after killing their wives.
With 123,000 troops returning from Iraq in the next few months (to be replaced by 110,000 soldiers and Marines), and another 11,000 being ?turned? over in Afghanistan, America is in its largest troop rotation since the second world war. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called the operation ?a logistics feat that will rival any in history?; it may also have a sizeable social effect.
A virtual battalion of chaplains, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, domestic and child-abuse counsellors, financial advisers and others are on tap to embrace the combat-weary human wave about to hit America's shores. There are websites, pamphlets, hotlines and support groups. Over 400 ?family readiness centres? are open. At Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where more than 18,000 soldiers are due home in coming months, reunion seminars are being run for spouses.
This may sound ordered, but as Joyce Raezer of the National Military Family Association points out, ?a lot of these services are making it up as they go along?. One reason for this is that the changed nature of America's fighting force raises new issues from those encountered after Vietnam or even the last Gulf war.
A different sort of army
Around one in five of the troops in Iraq are reservists or part of the National Guard?and that proportion will double after the current rotation. These part-time soldiers are typically older, more likely to be married and have children than regular, active-duty soldiers; and most of them have jobs. They will return to civilian life, making them less easy to monitor than active-duty troops returning to bases.
There are also financial worries. The armed forces say that two-thirds of the reservists and National Guards mobilised have been paid the same or more than they get in Civvy Street. Harder to account for is the cost of leaving a family business unattended or missing a key promotion. On February 11th, several state lieutenant-governors launched a programme of grants for financially strapped families of reservists and National Guard soldiers.
The Army Reserve and National Guard have both fallen short of their most recent recruiting targets. Fear of an exodus of Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers prompted the reservists' boss, Lieutenant-General James Helmly to criticise the army's treatment of his men and women. The Reserve, he said, needed to convince its troops that ?we value your service and we're not going to run this like a doggone flesh farm.? That would mean giving reservists more predictability in their lives?a tall order in an age of global terror.
The assistant secretary of defence, Thomas Hall, who oversees the reservist and National Guard operations for all military services, rejects suggestions that his forces are stretched thin. About 350,000 of them (38% of the ?drilling reserve?) have been mobilised for federal duty since September 2001, leaving most of them available for more routine work like disaster relief. But Mr Hall admits plans are afoot to ?rebalance? the mix of skills in his forces, the plan being to lessen the pressure on particular sorts of troops?military police, air-traffic controllers and also, sadly, morticians?that are called up most.
The idea that reservists can be sent overseas has come as a surprise to many families. ?My son provided security for the torch at the Olympic Games: that's what I thought the National Guard did,? says Rosemarie Slavenas, an Illinois woman whose son was among 15 soldiers killed when a missile hit the helicopter he was piloting in Iraq last November.
Paul Vogel, whose son's tour of duty with the Army Reserve has been extended to a year, took the unusual step of travelling to Iraq to see his son last October. ?The full-time guys don't let their guard down, but the reservists feel they've been sold a bill of goods on the whole deal,? he says. He and his wife have put an American flag in their snow-covered yard for every American killed in Iraq. The banner on the side of their Victorian mansion in a prosperous, Republican-dominated suburb of Chicago reads: ?Proud of Our Soldier, Ashamed of Our President?.
The men, women and problems now coming home from Iraq
WITHIN certain military circles, ?Fort Bragg? is a code word for what the stress of combat can do to a man. In 2002, the murders of four military wives by their soldier husbands within six weeks at the base in South Carolina prompted the army to take a hard look at how combat affects troops and their families: three of the Fort Bragg soldiers had returned from special-forces duty in Afghanistan. Two of the men committed suicide after killing their wives.
With 123,000 troops returning from Iraq in the next few months (to be replaced by 110,000 soldiers and Marines), and another 11,000 being ?turned? over in Afghanistan, America is in its largest troop rotation since the second world war. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called the operation ?a logistics feat that will rival any in history?; it may also have a sizeable social effect.
A virtual battalion of chaplains, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, domestic and child-abuse counsellors, financial advisers and others are on tap to embrace the combat-weary human wave about to hit America's shores. There are websites, pamphlets, hotlines and support groups. Over 400 ?family readiness centres? are open. At Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where more than 18,000 soldiers are due home in coming months, reunion seminars are being run for spouses.
This may sound ordered, but as Joyce Raezer of the National Military Family Association points out, ?a lot of these services are making it up as they go along?. One reason for this is that the changed nature of America's fighting force raises new issues from those encountered after Vietnam or even the last Gulf war.
A different sort of army
Around one in five of the troops in Iraq are reservists or part of the National Guard?and that proportion will double after the current rotation. These part-time soldiers are typically older, more likely to be married and have children than regular, active-duty soldiers; and most of them have jobs. They will return to civilian life, making them less easy to monitor than active-duty troops returning to bases.
There are also financial worries. The armed forces say that two-thirds of the reservists and National Guards mobilised have been paid the same or more than they get in Civvy Street. Harder to account for is the cost of leaving a family business unattended or missing a key promotion. On February 11th, several state lieutenant-governors launched a programme of grants for financially strapped families of reservists and National Guard soldiers.
The Army Reserve and National Guard have both fallen short of their most recent recruiting targets. Fear of an exodus of Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers prompted the reservists' boss, Lieutenant-General James Helmly to criticise the army's treatment of his men and women. The Reserve, he said, needed to convince its troops that ?we value your service and we're not going to run this like a doggone flesh farm.? That would mean giving reservists more predictability in their lives?a tall order in an age of global terror.
The assistant secretary of defence, Thomas Hall, who oversees the reservist and National Guard operations for all military services, rejects suggestions that his forces are stretched thin. About 350,000 of them (38% of the ?drilling reserve?) have been mobilised for federal duty since September 2001, leaving most of them available for more routine work like disaster relief. But Mr Hall admits plans are afoot to ?rebalance? the mix of skills in his forces, the plan being to lessen the pressure on particular sorts of troops?military police, air-traffic controllers and also, sadly, morticians?that are called up most.
The idea that reservists can be sent overseas has come as a surprise to many families. ?My son provided security for the torch at the Olympic Games: that's what I thought the National Guard did,? says Rosemarie Slavenas, an Illinois woman whose son was among 15 soldiers killed when a missile hit the helicopter he was piloting in Iraq last November.
Paul Vogel, whose son's tour of duty with the Army Reserve has been extended to a year, took the unusual step of travelling to Iraq to see his son last October. ?The full-time guys don't let their guard down, but the reservists feel they've been sold a bill of goods on the whole deal,? he says. He and his wife have put an American flag in their snow-covered yard for every American killed in Iraq. The banner on the side of their Victorian mansion in a prosperous, Republican-dominated suburb of Chicago reads: ?Proud of Our Soldier, Ashamed of Our President?.
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