Corps offers help for war-strained marriages

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Corps offers help for war-strained marriages
By Chelsea J. Carter - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Apr 2, 2008 16:12:19 EDT

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Fighting in Iraq took a heavy toll on Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Patrick, damaging his hand, injuring his brain and causing him to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

But Patrick’s body wasn’t the only thing hurt by combat. His relationship with his wife was wounded, too. The couple got married shortly after he returned, but Patrick refused to talk to her about the war. Sometimes he yelled at her.

So the pair marked their first anniversary this past weekend at a Marine Corps retreat that took a decidedly un-military approach to saving marriages: Combining classes in communication with massage therapy, yoga and meditation. It’s an effort by the military to ease the strain on married couples when troops return to civilian life after long, repeated deployments.

Navy Chaplain Dwight Horn came up with the idea after returning from Fallujah, where he witnessed some of the fiercest fighting in the war.

“It just opened my eyes. I began to see a lot of issues that needed to be addressed,” said Horn, a member of the Marine Corps chaplains’ program that organized the retreat. He had trouble resuming life with his wife after coming back from Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_couplestherapy_040208/