Posted on 01/01/2005 12:08:29 PM PST by SandRat
The Army has taken on a new mission: to help mend war-torn marriages.
It's an admirable effort, as young service men and women are sent to harm's way for extended periods of time - including some stationed at Fort Huachuca.
When they come home, they may have trouble adjusting back to everyday life, especially with children and spouses.
As The Associated Press reported this week, 300 couples with the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division, which has had troops serve in Iraq, have attended "marriage enrichment" seminars. And surely there are others who need the help, too.
According to the story, some studies show divorce rates as high as 21 percent among couples where one spouse has been sent off to war.
The Army program is focusing on the people and the relationship, which is commendable.
"What we're trying to do is change the culture that it's OK to work on your marriage and take some time and invest in your lifelong relationship," said Col. Glen Bloomstrom, director of ministry initiatives for the Chief of Chaplains.
We owe it to our service men and women, who went into a war zone, to help them keep their personal lives together. And spending $2 million on programs such as giving vouchers on romantic getaways may seem frivolous at first, but it allows our troops a chance to reconnect with loved ones.
It's something that should inspire married couples out of the Army to take a look at their relationships and find out if they are really working on them. Family is one of the most important values that we cherish.
Maybe working on our relationships is a good resolution for the new year. The Army has gotten a head start.
da-da-ding!
I know Glenn. We went to school together.
A really good guy with a real dedication to families.
He did it the hard way; growing up as a Ranger chaplain under Wayne Downing.
Bump.
Most of our brave military are young and have a hard time adjusting to separation. Especially with all that combat entails. I'm getting old and I don't like separation from my bride.
Great idea to give support..
Sounds good to me ~ Bump!
He wasn't keeping it from me that he was given this little lecture, but he didn't mention it for quite sometime. These programs really do help marriages and I'm so glad that they're stepping it up.
At about that same time, I had been reading one of Dr. Laura's books and I saw the nag she described in me. I went out of my way to see the good, to focus on what he was giving instead of what he wasn't. I accepted his "maleness" and stopped trying to make him into something that he wasn't. (sensitive, nurturing... a woman! ha ha!) I really think that those two small things have made my marriage into what it is today.
It's a sign of the times, I suppose, that men and women have lost the ability to understand on an instinctive level what makes them different as men and women. It certainly makes it a lot harder to keep families together and rear children. I could cite a lot of personal examples, but won't.
If the military wanted you to have a wife, they would issue you one...
I think a good relationship to study for those military spouses that have to be away from one another so much is that of John and Abigail Adams. Talk of sacrifice but a very strong relationship.
I know too many guys fighting for freedom whose wives left the for someone here at home. My words to such women are too harsh for this forum, and would surely be zapped by the Moderator. Let's just say that torture is too gentle for them.
Thanks for the ping. "According to the story, some studies show divorce rates as high as 21 percent among couples where one spouse has been sent off to war."
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That's very unfortanate and I hope the marriage encounters can help out in a big way.
What I find unfathonable, is how do families cope when BOTH parents go off to war, leave the kids with grandparents, return and reuite as a family. I can't imagine both parents being in-service at the same time with young children at home. That must be extremely difficult.
"If the military wanted you to have a wife, they would issue you one..."
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LOL!!
SFC Bess?
The hardest job in the military is being a wife/spouse....LOL
"American men keep marrying the femnazi self centered trollops so ubiquitous in our population that keeps this phenomenon going."
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Boy, that sounds like a pretty negative generalization, to say the least.
You think they all married democrats, or what, LOL!
I "googled" SFC Bess and didn't find anything...
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