Sunday, October 21, 2012

Army Strong



Last year nearly “30,000 marriages” ended last year, all those marriages where of military families that had severed overseas in combat. My family wasn’t one of them. I have a father who is in the military. He wasn’t around a lot sometimes.  He has working in the Middle East and here in Iowa. My mom has raised my brother and a lot by herself.  What it has been is hard for both sides of their marriage and on if they should stay together in this marriage. They have but it’s been a lot of work.

When you spend a lot of time with a person you come to know them and their habits, but if that person was to leave and go to war then come back they never come back the same.  Sometimes they lose a leg or an arm. Even when they do come back physically sound mentally they may not be.   Nearly “20% of the total returning troops” from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.   http://operationmilitaryfamily.com/guides/mental-health/  That can put pressure on a marriage or on a family member.  Post-Traumatic stress disorder is a reaction to a traumatic event in your life, like combat. It can cause many mental issues like the inability to express feeling and cope with change.  http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/what-is-ptsd.asp

My family is truly lucky.  We are still one family. After over 5 years together of my dad being gone we are still a family. It had taken a lot of hard work on are part but it has been worth it. My uncle has also severed in the military; he has severed overseas 3 times but has also had a divorce and is into his second marriage. It was not his fault that the marriage ended it was his wife’s choice and he tried to stop it but she had moved to Texas already by the time he could come home.  

The army has a saying “there is strong, then theirs army strong.”  I like to believe that even if I haven’t ever really been in the army that I am army strong just for my father. He is my idol in his strength to leave his family and go to war. My mother is also army strong in that she can stay here and raise to children and support him. She is home front strong and I idolize her from it.  So luck is just really hard work to stay a family.

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