By JULIE PERCHA/ABC Ask 9-year old Valerie Gonzalez of Alhambra, Calif., about her father’s job, and she flashes a toothless smile. “I like it. My dad knows how to protect me,” she said of Army Master Sgt. Juan Gonzalez, a member of the California Army National Guard, who recently returned from a tour of Kosovo. […]

A recent study of Army wives finds military couples struggle to communicate effectively before, during and after a service member’s deployment. Prior to deployment, Army wives reported anxiety and anticipation for their husband’s pending assignments. However, Army wives were also eager for their husbands to deploy so they could move on with their lives, according […]

By Iason Athanasiadis/The Christian Science Monitor Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan — The lines outside the burger and pizza joints dotting the “Boardwalk” at Kandahar Air Base remain defiantly long, despite recent reports that it may be shut down. The air base in southern Afghanistan is NATO’s largest in the country and the main landing spot […]

Armin Brott/The Spokesman-Review Dear Mr. Dad: I’ve been deployed in Afghanistan for 13 months and am returning home next week. Being apart from my wife and children for so long has got me committed to making some major changes in my relationships with them. How easy will this be to do? A: There’s nothing like being […]

by Elaine Wilson/American Forces Press Service Defense and USO officials joined military families at the U.S. Navy Memorial here yesterday to celebrate the launch of a new DVD created to help military children cope with a parent’s deployment. “With You All the Way” — a joint effort by the Defense Department, USO and the Trevor […]

By James Dao / The New York Times The act of killing is as fundamental to war as oxygen is to fire. Yet it is also the one thing many combat veterans avoid discussing when they return home, whether out of shame, guilt or a deep fear of being misunderstood. But a new study of […]

By Rajiv Chandraskaren / The Washington Post Two days before announcing the deployment of additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, President Obama informed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal that he was not granting McChrystal’s request to double the size of the Afghan army and police. Cost was a factor, as were questions about whether the capacity exists […]

Military Experiment Seeks to Predict PTSD By Alicia Chang / Associated Press Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images. Smiling kids embracing a soldier. A dog sniffing blood oozing […]

The Sensitive Soldier: Can US troops be rewired to be impervious to trauma? In the wake of Fort Hood, Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum launched a groundbreaking program to eliminate PTSD. By Gail Sheehy / The Daily Beast “How am I going to get people to focus not on tragedy, but on resilience?” Brigadier General Rhonda […]

By Joel Brown / Argus Leader Being the father of a deployed soldier has been eye-opening. As a political conservative, I had grown accustomed to cheering for the USA in conflicts overseas. I had my own thoughts on Sept. 11, 2001, and supported the wars in two countries that have followed. I haven’t wavered as […]