Blog posts with the tag "Military Couples"

Guest Perspective: Serving Military and Veteran Couples in Crisis

I never served. My time would have been during the Vietnam War. But from 1970-1974, I completed my undergraduate studies under a 2-S student deferment; when President Nixon revoked the student deferment with a new draft bill in September 1971, the first to be impacted were men in the Class of ’75 – those a year behind me. When the draft lottery was held in August of 1971 for men in my cohort, I drew #264. (Had I been born on December 4th of 1952 instead of January 4th, I would have drawn #1.) And so I transitioned uninterrupted from undergraduate to graduate studies, completing my doctoral degree three years after the fall of Saigon.

Guest Perspective: Making it Work - One Deployment at a Time

Many years ago, I just had one name and one role.  I was Katie.  That’s who I was, and that was all.  Throughout this journey of life, I have adopted and adapted to other names and other roles.  I have been Airman, Miss, and teacher.  About ten years ago, I became wife.  That was a major role change on its own, but I added “military wife” to it as well.  Having been a military member myself, the military lifestyle wasn’t so hard to adapt to until I added my next name, Mama. 

Guest Perspective: Resilience as Acceptance

My husband and I joined the military in 2008 as psychology residents with the vague, distant understanding that deployment was a possibility for both of us. Just like anything that seems stressful and perhaps mildly unpleasant, but too far in the future, we paid little attention to our fears and concerns. However, I don’t think either of us anticipated that our experience with deployment would coincide with the birth of our one and only child.

Staff Perspective: Military Couples - Challenges and Survival Strategies

Most military couples would agree that military life offers a fair number of challenges.  I reached out to some “real life” experts – military couples who have been around the block a time or two – to learn from their wealth of experience.  Their marriages have collectively seen hundreds of deployments, PCSs, TDYs, and other major military family events – they have experienced ups, downs, and in-betweens – and they have some amazing stories to tell.  I asked them to share the greatest challenges they have faced as military couples and the survival strategies that have kept them going.         

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