Families, Military
Families, Military.“If the Army had wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one!” This often quoted dictum reflects a historical truth: until recently, military families have been excluded from military attention and policy, not just in the army, but in other services as well. Nonetheless, there have been American military families as long as there has been an American military establishment, and the numbers are growing. In the mid‐1990s, more than 2 million military personnel (more than 60%) were married, and military families represented at least 3 percent of all U.S. households.
Military families are influenced by a unique set of circumstances. The organization that employs the breadwinner sees itself as a familylike structure, and insists that its mission must come first. Militant values such as violence and hierarchy shape the context within which family members must function, and at times the battlefield encourages stronger...
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