The military family experience is often reduced to the moment when a service member returns home. The embrace. The tearful reunion. These images do not capture the long preparation for deployments, training exercises that can be fatal, spouses (95% women) who raise children alone, often cut-off from critical support systems. When service members return, both the soldiers and the families must “reintegrate.” Sometimes children struggle to reconnect with the absent parent. Spouses must re-navigate intimacy with a partner who has been away and has changed. The family’s well being is considered secondary to the security of the country with the military ideology that the “mission comes first.” Nearly a quarter of all military spouses are unemployed. Military children typically move six to ten times before graduating high school. These stressors are compounded by one-sided media representations of the military family experience, giving civilians distorted answers to the questions: “What is the cost of war?” and “What does it mean to be at war?”
This project began as a means for me to answer these questions for myself. To understand my new life as a military spouse living on a military base, I began photographing my new community, exploring my role in the military structure. It soon evolved into a document of how military families live. Since then, I have moved six times, experienced two deployments, had two children, often moving them across the country by myself. A community of women lives this war experience together, absent spouses, women who support each other and act as a support network, especially during difficult times. The community is tightly bound in its shared experiences and common mission.
The more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are isolated in nature and the unprecedented length of these wars has made coming home more difficult for soldiers in many ways. This project explores the social impact of war on U.S. military families, who have supported America's war effort, unseen. Less than 1% of the general population serves in the military and 60% of active duty service members have families. This shrinking demographic is becoming more family oriented and it is the family members who shoulder the burden of war. This community is always in a state of preparation for war, at war, or dealing with the aftermath of war. Because the civilian population is largely unaware of U.S. military operations abroad, the divide between the civilian and military communities continues to grow, further alienating a community already under stress.
