Latest Military Maneuvers Target Tarnished Family Ties

Drama unfolds daily at this vast, mountain-view army base, but it’s not grist for a combat film. The goings-on at the Family Readiness emergency center are part “Home Improvement,” part “Divorce Court.”

The center was set up to help families cope with separations during a six-month stint in Bosnia for 2,600 Ft. Carson soldiers. Spouses are counseled on domestic crises and linked to their far-off mates by e-mail and video-teleconferencing.

“We hear some tough conversations,” said Staff Sgt. Frank Barnwell, who helps run the round-the-clock operation. He compiled a list with terse examples: Spouse wanting divorce. Broken water pipe in home. Spouse cannot handle kids. Spouse miscarriage.

At Ft. Carson and bases worldwide, support for U.S. military families is more extensive and attentive than ever. Struggling to meet manpower goals during the economic boom, the Pentagon is taking ambitious, costly steps to improve quality of life enough to attract and retain married soldiers.

Army Child Care Seen as a Model

New, privatized family housing is planned at Ft. Carson and other bases where existing homes are in disrepair. The Army’s child-care program is winning praise as a model for state governments. A new health care program, TRICARE, is experiencing glitches, but the Pentagon promises improvements. Most big bases offer marriage counseling, parenting classes, financial planning, domestic violence prevention programs, and perks for spouses ranging from job placement to personal fitness trainers.

“The Army must move into the mind-set that family readiness is as important as soldier readiness,” David White, chief of the Army Family Liaison Office, said in a recent policy statement. “Crafting our families for the future must be as deliberate and well planned as soldier training.”

But complications arise as defense chiefs strive for a military that is family-friendly enough to compete with the paychecks of boom-time civilian employers. Among them:

* Deployments away from home base, including lengthy stints as overseas peacekeepers, are more frequent since the military reduced its ranks. Coupled with frequent moves, the result is high stress potential. “We either need to do less with less, or do more with more,” said Joyce Raezer of the National Military Family Assn. “But this more with less is going to destroy the fabric of our military families.”

* Battling attrition, the military is recruiting young parents even though the pay for junior enlisted ranks is not tailored to support a family. A recent military-wide 4.8% pay raise, the biggest since 1981, will help. But thousands of service families rely on food stamps and other assistance programs, and most spouses of enlisted soldiers work to earn crucial extra income.

“We run into families that come into the Army too big for a military salary,” said Patricia Randle, director of Ft. Carson’s financial readiness program. A private first class with several children earns roughly $1,200 a month, she noted--”a salary built to take care of one person living in a barracks.”

* Some veteran officers contend the pro-family program is going too far, gradually moving away from the kind of fighting force that would be most effective in a future high-casualty war.

“They’re into this warm-and-fuzzy concept, trying to make these potential killers into good fathers,” said Roger Charles, a retired Marine colonel from Alexandria, Va. “You want this 18-year-old guy to be an aggressive infantryman during the week, yelling, ‘Kill!’ during bayonet drill, and then switch that off when he goes home.”

Charles and like-minded former officers say the best step, militarily, would be to form some combat-ready units restricted to single soldiers, but they doubt the political climate would permit this. A former Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Carl Mundy, was rebuked by higher-ups in 1993 when he suggested prohibiting marriage during a Marine’s first years.

In any case, the post-Vietnam military has become dependent on married personnel: As of last year, 55% of the 1.37 million on active duty were married, and there were more than 1.2 million military children.

Victor Vasquez, deputy assistant defense secretary for family policy, insists the military is doing what is needed to compete with the private sector.

“Today’s robust job market and changing attitudes toward job commitment . . . make recruiting and retaining members more difficult than ever,” he said. “Family-friendly policies are right on target for today’s troops.”

Ft. Carson has a bigger ratio of families than the military as a whole; about 63% of its 14,650 soldiers are married. Its family support program is getting its first major test: The Bosnia deployment that began in February is the base’s biggest overseas mission since Vietnam.

“Before, soldiers’ families were forced to stand on their own, but we’ve found that’s the wrong way to do it,” said Maj. Michael Pond, who oversees support programs for his Bosnia-based squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. “The deployed soldiers now know that if anything happens to their family, there are people here ready, willing and able to take care of them.”

At the family readiness center, Sherri Rohren used the phone-and-video linkup to wish a happy 34th birthday to her husband, Staff Sgt. Robby Rohren. Their four children broke into grins when their father, in Bosnia, appeared on a computer screen and made a face.

Sherri Rohren has savored 13 years of military life after growing up in small-town Nebraska, but separations remain tough.

“You never get used to it,” she said. “There are always days you wish he were here to help you out.”

Jeri Julian, whose husband, Maj. Greg Julian, will be in Bosnia through September, reported marked improvements in family support since she first became an Army wife.

“Twelve years ago, when my first husband went to Germany, there was nothing in place,” she said. “They’re doing an excellent job now of recognizing the hardship that people at home go through.”

Jeri lives in a split-level house in Colorado Springs, a few miles from Ft. Carson, and scrambles each day to shuttle four children to and from day care and soccer leagues.

Each evening, the family crosses off a date on a “countdown” calendar in their hall, numbering the days until Greg’s return. A yellow ribbon of remembrance decorates a crab apple tree in the front yard.

The Julians exemplify the fact that military families move twice as frequently as civilians; seventh-grader Cynthia, the oldest child, has attended seven different schools. But Jeri feels she and other officers’ wives are relatively well cared for compared with enlisted soldiers’ spouses.

“There’s a gap to bridge,” she said. “More needs to be done for the enlisted families.”

Studies commissioned by the military bear her out. A 1997 survey indicated 20% of enlisted soldiers are in financial trouble, and 50% have occasional difficulty paying their bills.

Joyce Raezer, who lobbies Congress for the National Military Family Assn., finds it “scary” that recruiters woo struggling young parents so eagerly.

“The U.S. military is the only organization I know that is hiring teenagers with families and then sending those teenagers to the other side of the world,” she said. “There are consequences when you do that.”

Officials at Ft. Carson are keenly aware of the challenges facing families of low-paid privates and corporals. They are trying--with only partial success--to entice the spouses to make greater use of support programs.

“Some of these wives, they’re 17, 18. It’s amazing how unresourceful they can be,” said Karen Howard, who helps run the base’s domestic-abuse prevention program. “I see chaos out there sometimes.”

Susan Moyer, one of Howard’s colleagues, encounters some male soldiers so intent on controlling their wives that they take all the family car keys and ATM cards on overseas missions.

Stress can be particularly severe when a husband returns to his wife after deployment, Moyer said.

“She’s set up in this new household where she’s in charge. She’s more independent, and he comes back home and expects things to be the way they were before,” Moyer said. “That’s a serious conflict.”

Spc. Victor Vega, who serves in a Ft. Carson artillery unit, knows firsthand the difficulties of a married enlisted man. “First coming into the Army, I was against it,” said his wife, Cherie. “But the more involved you are--meeting your husband’s officers--the more you know, the more you feel they’ll do anything for you.”

The Vegas live in a modest three-bedroom apartment on the base, with their own small backyard. Cherie’s income from a pharmacy job is crucial for the couple, but they are grateful for the Army’s support of their children, a 7-year-old with a chronic heart defect and a 5-year-old with speech problems.

“It would be nice to make more money,” said Vega, who had worked in a Denver graphics center. “Sometimes we struggle a little with our bills. But I’ve always wanted to be a soldier, ever since I was a child. I wanted the adventure.”

Families like the Vegas could benefit from the pioneering housing program at Ft. Carson. A private company has signed a 50-year contract to take over all 1,823 homes on the base, renovate them, and build 840 new units.

It will be a huge step forward for the base, which was described by its top housing official two years ago as “the biggest slumlord in the country.”

Privatization is seen as the key to housing improvements throughout the military, since Congress is considered unlikely to appropriate the billions needed to replace or renovate the deteriorating stock of 300,000 on-base units. Vasquez said 60% of military housing is in urgent need of repair or replacement.

Even with the new housing, only 27% of Ft. Carson’s soldiers will be able to live on the base, with the Army paying their rent. Currently, the average soldier who lives off-base has to shoulder 19% of housing costs; defense officials hope to cover all such costs within five years.

Long-serving soldiers and civilian officials at Ft. Carson recite two mantras that illustrate the changing view of families. Not long ago, the attitude toward marriage was, “If we wanted you to have a wife, we’d have issued you one.” The new slogan, passed down from top Pentagon commanders: “We recruit the soldier. We retain the family.”

Sgt. Maj. Craig Daniels, in charge of Ft. Carson’s retention program, now finds it essential to include the spouse in deliberations when he tries to persuade a soldier to reenlist rather than seek higher pay out of uniform.

“With the new generation of kids, it isn’t just the ‘duty, honor, country’ that it used to be. It’s ‘What can you give me?’ ” he said. “To be successful, you have to focus on the family.”

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On the Net:

Military Family Resource Center:

https://www.mfrc.calib.com

National Military Family Assn.:

https://www.nmfa.org