The Forgotten Military Families
By Petty Officer 2nd Class Annie Elis - https://www.flickr.com/photos/coast_guard/5551474123/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34003296
There are differences in the military branches, especially the National Guard (Guard) & Reserves. When we think of deployments we usually think of Active Duty. We forget about those that deploy from Guard & Reserve units unless it’s our family or friends. They have become an important part to our military machine. During Desert Storm, an estimated 19% of the US forces sent were Guard & Reserves. With the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 28% of those serving were Guard or Reservists. That is an estimated 230,000 Guard and 170,000 Reservists. Of those approximately 20,000 have been deployed 4 or more times. There are a lot of Guard and Reservists who continue to deploy, many of their families are left with little support while they are deployed. These families are an integral part of our community and deserve support. If you look closely you will find them. I didn’t have to look far.
Joanne is a student I have had in a couple of classes. She is married to Rick, a sailor in the Naval Reserves. Like all military families they struggled with his deployments. He has been deployed twice for 9 months, and is expecting another deployment soon. Where that doesn’t sound like a lot to an Active Duty family, for a Guard or Reservist family it is problematic. Most Guard & Reserve families do not have the support system many Active Duty families have. Families on Active Duty have military base resources to help where Guard and Reserves don’t. Many Active Duty families live on or near a military installation. If an active duty family lives on base they have a maintenance crew who repair their living quarters when there’s a problem. In these situations the government pays the electric bill, water bill, trash bill, and all repairs needed on their living quarters. Active Duty families usually have a support network from their spouses unit where they can get help. Many Guard and Reserve families who’s unit might be hours away and are no help. Ricks unit is 4 hours away, so help from his unit is not an option. Joanne doesn’t live near family, and struggles to ask for help because she feels no one cares or understands. They do not live in a military town, so neighbors don’t understand either.
When a family is on Active Duty, the military is their job. For Guard and Reserves they have a civilian job and the military is a secondary job that pays very little. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) was designed to protect Guard & Reservist from losing their civilian jobs while being called for active duty military service. Employers are supposed to keep their jobs open for them while they are on Active Duty, but like everything congress does, there are loop holes. Some Guard and Reservists are injured while on active duty and are unable to continue working in their former capacity when they return. That allows an employer to terminate their position and not bring them back to their civilian job.
Like Active Duty, Guard & Reserve veterans can receive Veterans Administration (VA) disability, but often their disability paperwork takes months to process while they are making little if nothing while waiting on the VA system because they lost their civilian job. For many the disability pay is significantly less than what many were making as a civilian, causing a financial burden on the families. For those able to continue serving there appears to be no end in sight for Guard & Reservist families, it appears deployments will continue for a while. Please support our forgotten military families while their spouse is deployed. That is just one little thing a community can give to those that give so much.
For questions or comments, I can be reached at bo@afterdutyvets.com or visit our website at afterdutyvets.com.