When my father, Odysseus, and his men sailed off to the Trojan War, they were confident their gods favored a quick victory. Instead, the siege of Troy lasted ten years. After Troy fell, the survivors made their way home to Sparta, Mycenae, Pylos, and elsewhere in the ancient Peloponnese. Neither my father nor any of his troops arrived home with the rest. We waited for years as the news grew worse. Odysseus was dead, we were told,or imprisoned, or, worst yet, he had married another woman and abandoned my mother Penelope, my brother Telemachus, and me.


If he is alive somewhere, his thoughts may wander to Penelope and Telemachus, but he won’t be thinking of me. I am the daughter he doesn’t know exists. Odysseus went off to the Trojan War when his son, Telemachus, was barely old enough to walk. His wife, Penelope, was a teenage bride, and is now a young wife, mother, and queen who has to try to rule Ithaca without him.


I was born seven months after he left. I am a hero’s daughter and a princess of his realm, but I have lived my entire life without a father. I’m nineteen now, and still waiting.


All over the world, and throughout history children grow up as I have. This website will focus on the children of those men and women who have gone off to fight America's wars, and provide information and resources for all who care about military families and want to help.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Making Service Local

One of the big problems with an all-volunteer military in war time is that call-ups affect reserve and National Guard troops, who often live far away from bases or communities likely to have support services for military families.
 An Indiana-based organization, the NMFI,  is working to address this for residents of that state, which has 23,674 active and reserve members, mostly Army National Guard, with 1,800 deployed and 3,600  deploying in January 2012.

Most of the activities center around libraries and schools, including a Heroes Tree, where libraries place a tree on site and people are encouraged to make ornaments honoring servicemembers past and present.  Activities such as these help to keep servicemembers on people’s minds. 

 Along with program resources, libraries also are provided with leaflets called How to Help Military Families  which offers suggestions customized for childcare providers, faith-based groups, employers, health care professionals, neighbors and others.  
The institute partners with the Center for Deployment Psychology to provide training sessions for health care providers, marriage and family therapists, and mental health professionals. Additionally, the institute has shipped 1,300 training kits to primary care doctors within the state.

One example of the problem the program is trying to address is Evansville, which has a fairly large military unit. It is 76 miles away from a VA medical center, and the closest child psychologist is about 100 miles away, Columbus, Indiana has Camp Atterbury and will soon have a small active-duty unit. More than 50,000 troops have deployed after training there, yet there is relatively little child care and no after-hours care. 
Posted by About AART at 7:34 AM

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