With a continuing focus on military families during Military Family Appreciation Month, today I want to talk about military families’ connections to the civilian communities that they live in. As a military spouse, one of the most challenging aspects of military life for me has always been the frequent moves.
I wanted to kick off Military Family Appreciation Month by giving special recognition to all of the military children who support the military mission in more ways than they know. (Stay tuned for April, which is the Month of the Military Child) Did you know that the official flower of the military child is the dandelion? You may ask yourself, why a dandelion? Well, it was chosen in 1998 due to it representing various aspects of a military child’s life (militarybrat.com). Military children have to put down roots in many places and tend to bloom wherever the military takes them, surviving in a broad range of climates. Simply put, they are hardy!
9.42 million
The number of Military Health System beneficiaries in FY 2017, according to a Congressional Research Service brief issued earlier this year -- Defense Primer: Military Health System.
Recently I reviewed the current literature on military families and deployment in preparation for updating the Center for Deployment’s (CDP) online course, The Impact of Deployment on Families and Children. While this is a topic that I’ve been teaching since I first joined the CDP almost nine years ago, I was excited when I ran across an article that summarized the deployment cycle challenges that military families face in a new way.
I have been watching and experiencing Navy deployment reunifications for decades. As a clinical social worker, I’ve talked to many Sailors and families about what they can expect following a deployment. The first deployment I personally experienced was in the mid-90s when my now-husband and I first started dating. His Japan-based ship was completing a scheduled five-month deployment. In those days, families knew the date the ship was leaving, the date they would return, as well as dates and locations of every port visit while they were out.