Families And Survivor’s Guilt

Posted on January 22, 2007 by

I remember when my husband’s unit left their home station on the first leg of their journey to Iraq; it was Halloween night, 2004. It seemed incredibly unfair to me that the children were running around the Armory in their Princess and Soldier costumes grabbing candy from dishes on the tables that sat on the drill floor instead of being out trick or treating with all the other children. I remember watching the bus pull out and seeing my husband turn around one last time to wave goodbye, I wondered if that would be the last time his boots would … Continue reading →

PTSD And Your Soldier

Posted on January 19, 2007 by

Shortly before my husband’s unit returned from Iraq the National Guard gave a family briefing and talked about what we should expect from our soldiers upon their return home, we were told they had not seen enough action to warrant PTSD for any of them. That statement had struck me odd at the time because I knew many of our soldier’s had seen more action than anyone would want to see in a lifetime and given part of our unit had been at a place that was nicknamed “Camp Mortar” for the large number of attacks, I wondered how these … Continue reading →

Introduction New Military Blogger

Posted on January 17, 2007 by

I just wanted to take a moment and introduce myself. I am so excited to be blogging for families.com on this topic and I can’t wait to get to know everyone here. A bit about me: My name is Trudy Marshall-Bowler and I am the wife of a Michigan National Guardsman. My husband spent 2005 in Iraq and I spent 2005 trying to find my way when I was thrust into the life of a “waiting wife”. I discovered many things in that year and also discovered that for some reason military family issues were often covered by people who … Continue reading →