ABSTRACT
When asked to think about military service, what generally comes to our minds are deployments, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and maybe even traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) as they are becoming more widely discussed. When questioned about family life and military service, we often discuss only the hardship-how very difficult “that kind of life” must be. Yes, we can posit that it is difficult to deal with the extended separations posed by deployments, Temporary Duty (TDY), and frequent field exercises. However, what often goes unspoken is the amount of resilience that must be present for a family system within the military to work given the constant onslaught of demands. Civilian families experience the competing demands of work, extracurricular activities, and social lives. Compound these factors with the added stress of having a single-parent household due to a deployed service member and the angst of wondering if you will receive a knock at the door indicating that your loved one did not survive. This is just a glimpse into the lives of military families.
