Life Back at Home

Everybody knows life is hard for soldiers, airmen, and Marines serving overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. But what about their children? While not exactly in the line of fire on a daily basis, children of deployed military personnel struggle to deal with their parents’ prolonged absences. At Fort Campbell High School, the largest on-base high school in the country, every student has at least one parent in the military, many of whom are currently deployed to the Middle East. Most of Fort Campbell’s students remark that while not having their dad or mom around for important coming-of-age events like birthdays, proms, and graduations is difficult, the fact that most of their peers are – or have been – in the same situation makes coping easier. Children of deployed parents countrywide generally deal with the situation well, but do suffer higher rates of depression and drops in academic performance. However, most are proud of their parents’ service, and refuse to use dad or mom’s absence as an excuse for poor behavior or bad grades. “My father doesn’t do an everyday job,” one student said. “And that’s going to help me along in life. I wouldn’t want to change it, to tell you the truth. It’s something different. I’m proud of it.”

With no more military draft, and the Middle East literally half a world away, many Americans have no first-hand experience with the Iraq War. For most, it is something watched nightly on television for updates, like a sports highlight show. But for the students at Fort Campbell and thousands of other people nationwide with family members in the military, the war is something deeply personal, even if they don’t wear a uniform.