Deployment and the Kids Back Home

Steve Scher
06/26/2008 at 9:00 a.m.

A four year old says, "I'm mad at Daddy! He's playing in a sandbox and he won't let me play." An eight year feels like he has to take over dad's role while he's gone. A teenager looks at the calendar, and counts each day until mom gets home. Fort Lewis estimates 52,000 kids around Puget Sound have a parent in the military. When that parent is deployed to the sandbox in Iraq, or to Afghanistan, life changes for the kids at home. How do they cope? The Army has made family health a priority and is creating new support programs at Fort Lewis. What support is available for families in the Guard and Reserves? Military kids are on the next Weekday.

Guest(s)

Brittany Neff is 14. She has gone to Operation Purple Camp for the past two summers. It's a camp for kids with parents in the military. Brittany's dad is in the Navy and is currently stationed on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf. She's joins us with her mom, Patricia.

Maj. Keith Lemmon is a pediatrician at Madigan Army Medical Center and specializes in adolescent medicine. He is helping build a 'Center of Excellence' to support kids and teens in Army families. Maj. Lemmon served in Afghanistan in 2002–2003 and lives with his wife and three kids.

Dr. Ellie Sternquist is a psychologist at Northwest Psychological Services in Gig Harbor. She's counseled soldiers, veterans and their families for thirty years. Her youngest patients call her "Dr. Ellie."

Deborah Gibbs is a senior health analyst at Research Triangle Institute, a nonprofit in North Carolina. The Army commissioned Gibbs to study how deployment affects rates of child abuse and neglect in Army families.