Keeping the Home Fires Burning: Family Support Issues

Abstract

FAMILY SUPPORT, critical during military deployments, has improved in the US Army thanks to lessons learned during Operations Desert Shield and Storm, according to a field study conducted at Fort Drum, New York, by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Through spouse surveys and interviews during the Operation Restore Hope deployment to Somalia, our research team discovered that the Army has successfully institutionalized key elements of its family support structure. study was specifically designed to determine: * exact stressors spouses encountered during the mission. * Army and non-Army psychological and social supports spouses used to reduce stress. * How well spouses and families coped with deployment and reunion stressors. * extent to which family support lessons from the Operation Desert Shield/Storm era were incorporated into Fort Drum's support system. Restore Hope was a joint services task force that deployed about 28,000 personnel from all four armed services to Somalia. President George Bush approved the mission on Thanksgiving Day 1992 and publicly announced his decision on 4 December. According to Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, the purpose of sending US forces to was to restore the situation so that relief supplies can be delivered, and so that once we withdraw, we can turn over responsibility for dealing with the continuing security problem to regular UN forces.1 Most of the 10,000 Army personnel deployed came from the 10th Mountain Division (Light) [10th MD(L)], Fort Drum.2 field study's first part, conducted in March 1993 at Fort Drum, consisted of interviews with spouses, family support group (FSG) leaders, rear detachment (RD) commanders, housing unit mayors and family support service providers.3 These interviews helped us develop a questionnaire for spouses and explore local family support resources and emerging issues. questionnaire was given to a representative sample of 10th MD(L) spouses a few months after about 94, percent of the soldiers had returned from Somalia. About 46 percent of the questionnaires were returned, allowing us to statistically compare the views of nearly 700 spouses of soldiers who had deployed to with the views of more than 300 spouses of soldiers who had not deployed. Wherever possible, Restore Hope responses were compared with 1991 survey responses from spouses of soldiers who had deployed to Southwest Asia for Desert Shield/Storm from the Continental United States.4 Also, because of the continued concern within the Department of Defense about junior enlisted marriages, we conducted special analyses within that group. Lessons Learned Restore Hope's mission armed peacekeeping (PK) in a famine-stricken Third World nation-was quite different from Army warfighting operations during the Gulf War. Although Restore Hope had at least a temporary positive effect in stopping starvation and reducing the chaotic conditions in Somalia, it received much less public support and news coverage than Desert Shield/Storm.6 Only 61 percent of deployed soldiers' spouses at Fort Drum were satisfied with the level of support the American public gave the mission. In comparison, 92 percent of Desert Shield/Storm spouses were happy with the support those operations received. Only 40 percent of Restore Hope spouses were satisfied with media coverage. One spouse noted, Somalia was in the news too much initially and too little lately. Also, the media's grasp of the facts regarding left a lot to be desired. Stressors. Most spouses at Fort Drum found the deployment emotionally stressful. events or problems spouses had to deal with during the soldiers' absence and the amount of stress the spouses felt are listed in Figure 1. Because of Fort Drum's location, the weather was sometimes a problem, as one spouse noted: The biggest problem for me and many other spouses was the snow. …