Military Rewarding

14. Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards) states the Air Medal is awarded in time of war for heroism and for meritorious achievement or service while participating in aerial flight. This award is primarily intended for personnel on flying status but may also be awarded to those personnel whose combat duties require them to fly; for example, personnel in the attack elements of units involved in air-land assaults against an armed enemy. As with all personal decorations, formal recommendations, approval through the chain of command, and announcement in orders are required.

To summarize (Kaplow, Layne, Saltztman, Cozza & Pynoos, 2013, p. 322-340) this article looks at how grief through exposure to loss due to combat fights, loss of fellow unit members, or the loss of a service member can affect a service member or military family during deployment and reintegration phases. The article goes on to discuss some of the stresses that can increase due to deployments such as martial conflicts, abuse or neglect, and mental health problems stemming from both spouses or children. More military children function equally as well as their civilian counterparts, except during times of deployment where they experience more emotional and behavioral problems. The article looks at three key areas Separation distress characterized as missing the deceased. Existential/Identity Distress finding meaning or fulfillment, or taking on roles left by the deceased. Circumstance-Related Distress characterized as emotional pain brought on by how the deceased passed. The article furthermore looks into how the age of the military children plays into their separation distress. Followed by their existential/identity Distress may be disrupted by new

Life for me in the military has changed me in many different ways like, trusting a person that looked different, reasonability, and working in places that the environment isn’t friendly. It taught me to be accountable for my actions. As a 17 year old young man, I was always the one to make a lot of excuses for anything that I was too lazy to complete. The military made me a responsible person. People knew that my word was solid if I said the task was complete, and trust was being earned. In the military trust is one of the biggest factors that keeps us alive during a mission, without it we are doomed.

There is a large amount of military families around the world. About Forty- three percent of active military members have children (Website). These children face so many challenges and struggles in their life while having a parent in the military. Children of Active duty military members exhibit anxiety, depression and stress just as much as the service members and spouses experience. For instance the children experience going through multiple deployments, long separations, frequent moves and awkward reunions when their parents return home from deployment. Even more so if the parent has been physically or mentally traumatized from overseas.

War has tremendous effects on the human mind and impacts all parties involved. Remnants of war can dramatically affect relationships with loved ones and create greater problems ranging from financial problems to psychological damage that has more profound effects on the family infrastructure and its operation. The notion of war produces pressures and strains on the family that is not experienced everyday in the routine family life. Family member who experience PTSD from their service in the military also places unforeseen weights and consequences for the family to carry. There are specific effects distinct to a parent, a spouse, and children when a loved one is serving their country. The relationships between a service men and these family members are transformed with the absence and their reintegration.

The military lifestyle is simply one of a kind. Our military places enormous stress not only on each of its members, but on each of their families as well. Long periods of separation, lengthy training, and combat deployments affect those in the battlefield and their loved ones at home. Our military has changed forever after the infamous terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. With continuous, hateful threats from our enemies, the demands placed upon our service members have become even more pronounced. Tours have become longer and more frequent. Marriages to military members are constantly burdened with these conflicts. Despite these increased hardships with recent conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, military marriages are becoming more resilient and are more likely to prevail.

What do military families truly endure to maintain a relationship despite constant time apart during deployments? Husbands and wives are often forced to fill each others role while the other is away. When a parent is not used to being around a child it is hard to know to act and react to the child’s actions. All members of a military family can face some form of post traumatic stress disorder due to the unnatural lifestyle that is lived daily. Deployments cause military families to struggle more so than nonmilitary families due to role reversals, added child maltreatment and PTSD.

For example, almost every kid whose parent or parents are in the military have been deployed before. Meaning that their parent is going away for duty to another country like Iraq or Afghanistan for 6-18 months. This puts stress on the family because they do not have both parents for support. Not only does having a parent deployed for a long time makes things stressful, but also moving to different cities because of one's parent received orders somewhere else to work. This part is also stressful due to the entire moving process. Parents have to get paper work processed and kids have to complete paper work for school, so they can stay on track from their old school to their new school. But besides the school and paper work, this is tough on the kids because they have to keep making new friends everywhere they move to. However, with moving comes new experiences. Such as, if one family gets stationed in Germany they can travel to different countries and experience other cultures. Or one can learn the country's language and communicate with others outside the military to adapt to their

Military children and families face multiple challenges just for being part of this culture, these challenges are not limited to disruption in family routines, extended separations, mental health problems and parenting difficulties that be related to exposure to traumatic events (Paley, Lester, & Mogil, 2013). One such challenge is deployment. What is deployment, it is the sending of military personnel and materials to a specific destination from their home installation (Military, 2015). Deployment encompasses the preparation and personal needs that are needed before, during and after deployment. All families preparing for a deployment separation go through a process defined by the stages of preparation, survival, and reunion and with each stage comes with different stressors and adjustments for the military member and family members left behind. The stages are predeployment, deployment, sustainment, redeployment and post deployment ((Devoe, & Ross, 2012), within these stages are the seven emotional stages of deployment anticipation of departure, detachment and withdrawal, emotional disorganization, recovery and stabilization, anticipation of return, return adjustment and renegotiation and reintegration and stabilization (Morse, 2006).

How does having a sibling in the military affect young adults? Despite increasing attention to the challenges faced by spouses and children of service members, the siblings of service members have been largely ignored. An analysis of military deployment reveals challenges facing countless families in the United States of America: the deployment period causes stress on the family and friends. I am affected by military deployments, because my father was in the United States Navy, and my oldest brother is currently serving in Northern Iraq with the United States Army.

Military families move an average of every two to three years, which means approximately 500,000 military children change schools every year. ( website 4). Some changes in moving to different duty stations for children are; a change in housing, friends, schedules and routines, teachers and schools, and activities. That is a lot of change these children have to go through every two to three years. All of this change is caused to have mental health problems compared to children who don’t ever have to move(website 4). Moving around can cause children to have depression and anxiety. Military children can feel anxiety over new schools and whether they'll make friends, in addition to their grief at being separated from old friends.(website 5). The

National Guard and Reserve troops face similar challenges as other military personnel, but can also face some unique challenges since they are citizen-soldiers as opposed to soldiers who are citizens. National Guard and Reserve troops function in their local communities as citizens when they are not serving in the military. Thus, after returning home from deployment they may need assistant in reintegrating back into their communities as citizens. Also, these service members return home finding that the dynamics of their families have changed because the families have had to adjust and carry on with “life” without them while they were deployed. These dynamics can make service members very vulnerable to feelings of isolation, which is the

Military children, the most affected by the deployment, get fearful about their military father’s deployment, and will eventually rebel in his absence, thus adding more stress to the non-deployed mother. However, the experience will help them forge stronger bond with their mother and gain maturity and flexibility in their daily lives.

The challenges and stressors impacting military families are numerous yet this research endeavor is limited, therefore a focused exploration was required. This brief review will begin with the issues impacting military families, focusing on those related to deployment, relocation, and including a section exploring the impact on the children of these issues. Next, the issues of re-adjustment after service will be examined. Finally, the role of the social worker as it pertains to their work with Service Members, Veterans, and their families, in overcoming these

Deployment and integration are one the greatest challenges military families and children have to face on a daily basis. When a family member deploys or reintegrates within the entire family, it not only affects the service member but it affects the entire family. Deployment can often lead to families and children, experiencing a negative mental health outcomes and compromised wellbeing. Bello (2015) found that most families and children (80.5% required less than one month to adjust to the return of their deployed parent (Bello, 2015). Accordingly, the families and children are often quick to adjust to having their family member back in the home. Interestingly, discoveries are surprising in light of the fact that when contrasted to another family, the discoveries are definitely unique. Boberiene (2014) found that three out of every four families feel that reintegration after the first three months is the most stressful phase of a deployment (Boberiene, 2014). This is because the family experiences many emotions while the member is away.