I grew up an Army brat.  My father was in the military 22 years and was a medic in Vietnam.   It was not an easy life as I watched my mother struggle to take care of three children alone, and put food on the table.  We ate a lot of toasted cheese, tuna casseroles, split pea soup, and creamed eggs on toast.  To this day, I cannot stand the smell of any of these items and would rather eat raw octopus.

My father came back from Vietnam a changed man, and not for the better.  He could not adapt to civilian life or hold down a job.  He still had the wanderlust of traveling across the world in his blood and often left our home without telling my mother where he was going.  She would get a call several days later when he arrived somewhere a thousand miles away. Unfortunately, my parent’s marriage did not survive the stresses of military life, and they divorced when I was fifteen.

Over this past year, the marriage of my newlywed niece imploded after the return of her husband from Iraq.  Her husband decided he did not need his PTSD medications and withdrew cold turkey.  The experience has been devastating for the family to watch.  There are feelings of helplessness when there is no marital support system within the military at a local level.

If you watch the news or read the newspaper, you will find that the marriages of our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are dissolving at rapidly rising rates.  There were over 10,200 failed marriages in the military for the budget year ended September 30, 2008 per The Associated Press.  This is a sad statistic, and I feel the warriors at home, and the warriors in the field, need our prayers for protection over their marriages.

When our soldiers come home, how can we support them?

• Welcome them home by celebrating.
• Build friendships.
• Invite them to church.
• Watch their children.
• Be willing to listen.
• Pray for their marriages.

Our country has sent these men and women off to war. Let’s embrace them in a loving all-encompassing support system that will strengthen their marriages when they come home.