Family life is no longer just an afterthought for Soldiers

By David W. Kuhns Sr., Northwest Guardian

There have been a lot of changes around the Army over the last couple of decades. But perhaps none of them is as remarkable as the transformation of the service into one of the most family-friendly employers around.

Family life for Soldiers used to be an afterthought.

“If the Army wanted you to have a family,” the old cliche went, “they would have issued you one.”

That attitude certainly saved money and let the chain of command concentrate exclusively on training Soldiers to fight the nation’s wars. And ignoring family matters worked — at least at a time when the ranks were filled with young, single draftees.

But things changed. A volunteer Army forced major improvements in pay and benefits. Those, in turn, made the Army more attractive for older enlistees who were more likely to have families.

Maintaining a professional, volunteer Army also meant there had to be a huge jump in retention. Reenlisting Soldiers meant you got more out of the training dollars spent, yielding a more professional force. It also replaced that old Army cliche with a new one.

“You enlist Soldiers,” the mantra now goes, “but you reenlist families.”

While changes in how families are treated might have come about because of a cold assessment of requirements, there is no doubt that the changes are now part of the Army culture. You have only to look as far as preparations for the deployments over the last few years to see how sincerely those changes are being applied.

Not that many years ago deploy-ments would have been conducted in two phases. Units would pack up depart. Then families would have been left largely up to themselves to wait for their Soldiers to return.

Contrast that with what we see now. Both Fort Lewis and the Army have made incredible efforts to prepare Soldiers and their families for the trials of separation.

Family readiness groups are an accepted — and expected — part of the landscape on every Army post, but there are plenty of senior Soldiers around who remember the days when it was only informal networks of spouses that provided any type of family support at all.

Every facet of family life is now a focus of attention — from preparing schools to deal with the challenges faced by children of deployed parents, to providing special recreation.

I know of no other employer that provides anything like the level of support to families that the Army does. Life in the Army demands a lot from Soldiers and families, alike — it’s only appropriate that it gives back a lot, too.