Senior military spouses offer lessons learned

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Senior military spouses offer lessons learned
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 19, 2008 16:02:09 EST

Prolonged, continuous deployments and their effects on military families need to be seriously addressed in the coming year, said the wife of the Chief of Naval Operations, the wife of the Army chief of staff, and other senior spouses who participated in a panel discussion Nov. 18.

“It’s also long-term effects — we do not know the effects of these deployments on our children,” said Sheila Casey, wife of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, noting that little research has been done to date in that area.

“You do a study, and you are already there. The effects are already there,” she said.

“The Air Force is the newer service to commit to longer deployments,” said Bev Fraser, wife of Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. William Fraser. “We’ve learned from our sister services, but we’ve learned it’s still difficult.”

One things the Air Force is beginning to see, she said, is that retention is not always a positive thing these days. For some, it’s about “being bitter because you have to stay in” due to the faltering economy and civilian job market.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_seniorspouses_111908w/%2e