Re: The Fiscal Times (11/03/2015) By Eric Pianin | The Fiscal Times The Top 5 Problems Facing U.S. Military Families | The Fiscal Times
The relocation issue is becoming a big one with my oldest son with him now being in high school and me being at the point in my career when I am getting moved a lot. I am now understanding why some hard chargers take their foot off the throttle at this point in their career. The employment stressor for spouses, yeah, it definitely sucks. Finding employment/managing a career as the trailing spouse is tough as my wife tries to find comparable jobs when we move.
The ongoing change in duty stations (caususing additional collaterals) was as well a key factor consideration to me separating after 12-years…
I can only vouch for the Army and Marine Corps (relocations); all the same, I’m certain the Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard equally have their top stressors as well.
I can't speak for the others, but the Air Force isn't so bad. The worst thing I've seen since my retirement 20 years ago has been the raised tempo of deployments. Permanent Changes of Station aren't so bad, but those deployments eat up the members and their families. I'll be glad to see that tempo as we wind down our involvement in the ME.
During the deployment family members have a range of feelings and experiences, including worry or panic, Loneliness, sadness,Financial difficulties.
Since I was a Reservist for 9 years the one that really hit me was deployment stress. I was almost activated several times (unit was on stand-by and it looked like we were going) plus when I was finishing AIT I was told I could be shipped to the Middle East during the Gulf War (1990/91).