Long volunteer stints a heavy burden for wives

[unhappycamper]

Long volunteer stints a heavy burden for wives
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Jan 15, 2008 22:11:05 EST

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — During the worst of Bravo Troop’s 15-month tour in Iraq, when soldiers were dying in bunches, families here poured out their fear, frustrations and even hysteria onto one young woman: Bana Miller.

She’s not Army. She’s not trained. Her only qualification, then at age 24, was being an officer’s wife who volunteered to run Bravo Troop’s Family Readiness Group — a job of e-mailing and organizing potluck dinners in peacetime.

But when Bravo went to war, she became a social worker, grief counselor and a 24-hour hotline overnight. At various times, wives threatened to commit themselves to a mental institution or go to the media if Miller did not help bring their husbands home.

“I was in this alternative universe thinking: ‘What has my life become?’ ” says Miller, who grew up in the Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia and married the boy she met in seventh grade.

As the Iraq war enters a sixth year the Army has more than 3,000 volunteers such as Bana Miller, and many are buckling under the pressure of duties that they never expected would be so hard or last so long. The Army and Marine Corps lean on these family support volunteers to be the first stop for families struggling to deal with war, separation and loss.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/gns_volunteerwives_080115/

[Solly Mack]

1. I headed our FRG during a deployment and let me tell you

Never again...