ABSTRACT
The expanding circle of healing would be missing a very significant group of civilians who are sorely impacted by war if we did not acknowledge the surviving spouses of service members killed in action (KIA) and their families. When one considers the casualty figures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (over 6,300 KIA) (U.S. Department of Defense, 2012) and the Vietnam War (58,193 KIA) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1998), the numbers whose deaths left behind widows and widowers is not insignificant. In addition, there are the partners who were not legally married. Perhaps most disconcerting is how “invisible” such surviving spouses are once the funerals have taken place and life returns to normal for most everyone else—while the surviving spouses (and extended families) have a lifetime of bearing and coping with such a traumatic loss.
