MILITARY FAMILIES FROM FORT CAMPBELL, KY TELL ABOUT THE HORRORS LONG WARS HAVE TAKEN ON THEIR FAMILIES

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan lasting longer than five and seven years respectively, the toll on families of the GIs deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan---sometimes on their third and fourth rotation---are suffering even despite the Army's attempts to help them.

The Associated Press talked with families of soldiers deployed to Iraq from Fort Campbell, Kentucky and their stories are heart-breaking.

Below is the first a three-part series by AP of what is not getting reported in the rest of mainstream press about the havoc caused on families by two wars that are showing no signs of ending soon.


As Wars Lengthen, Toll On Military Families Mounts

Last Update: 10:22 am

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EDITOR'S NOTE - With troops fighting on foreign soil since late 2001, the United States is learning about the long-term toll of modern war on the home front. In the first of a three-part package of stories, The Associated Press examines some of the consequences for military families. By DAVID CRARY= AP National Writer= FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -

Far from the combat zones, the strains and separations of no-end-in-sight wars are taking an ever-growing toll on military families despite the armed services' earnest efforts to help.

Divorce lawyers see it in the breakup of youthful marriages as long, multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan fuel alienation and mistrust. Domestic violence experts see it in the scuffles that often precede a soldier's departure or sour a briefly joyous homecoming.

Teresa Moss, a counselor at Fort Campbell's Lincoln Elementary School, hears it in the voices of deployed soldiers' children as they meet in groups to share accounts of nightmares, bedwetting and heartache. "They listen to each other. They hear that they aren't the only ones not able to sleep, having their teachers yell at them," Moss said.

Even for Army spouses with solid marriages, the repeated separations are an ordeal. "Three deployments in, I still have days when I want to hide under the bed and cry," said Jessica Leonard, who is raising two small children and teaching a "family team building" class to other wives at Fort Campbell. Her husband, Capt. Lance Leonard, is in Iraq.

Those classes are among numerous initiatives to support war-strained families. Yet military officials acknowledge that the vast needs outweigh available resources, and critics complain of persistent shortcomings - a dearth of updated data on domestic violence, short shrift for families of National Guard and Reserve members, inadequate support for spouses and children of wounded and traumatized soldiers. If the burden sounds heavier than what families bore in the 20th century's longest wars - World War II and Vietnam - it is, in some ways.

Today's wars entail a deployment pattern of two, three, sometimes four overseas stints of 12 or 15 months - a schedule virtually unheard of in the past. "It's hard to go away, it's hard to come back, and go away and come back again," said Dr. David Benedek, an Army psychiatrist. "That is happening on a larger scale than in our previous military endeavors."

Almost in one breath, military officials praise the resiliency that enables most of these families to endure while acknowledging that the wars expose them to unprecedented stresses and the risk of long-lasting scars. An array of studies by the Army and outside researchers say that marital strains, risk of child maltreatment and other family problems worsen as soldiers serve multiple combat tours.

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