Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

indicated that the families would be fine in our absence;
however, most of the wives were opposed to the whole
ordeal, thus making it tougher than necessary on their
deploying husbands. In my opinion, that was the story
unfolding as we prepared to deploy.
In sum, the family support endeavor worked, starting
with the predeployment. That it was important to
everybody was not a debatable issue. However, the wives of
my senior leaders, particularly battery commanders’ wives,
paid a price in damage to their respective egos. Everyone
seemed to need something at one time or another. But, it
seemed that no matter how much effort the commanders’
wives placed on meeting the needs of others, it was never
enough to please all. A few of my battery commanders’ wives
probably did not really care about the people in their units. I
relieved them of their volunteer responsibilities. Other
commanders’ wives were young, inexperienced, and
learning on a daily basis. When these young ladies married
their officer husbands, they never dreamed that someday
they would be responsible for the family members of their
husbands’ commands. Most of my battery commanders’
wives had their own careers, had little or no prior military
familiarity, and had been married less than 3 years at the
time of our deployment to Bosnia. Nevertheless, most of the
commanders’ and senior noncommissioned officers’ wives
were great, no matter what the demands on their time and
energy.
In this regard, it is interesting to note how times have
changed since I first entered the Army almost 20 years ago.
Back in 1979, family support groups simply did not exist. As
a battery commander in Schweinfurt, Germany, I concentrated
solely on training for war and left the business of
family care to the individual soldier. In the event of a war in
Europe, families would evacuate to a safe haven via
execution of the Non-Combatant Evacuation program.
Wives were very dependent on their husbands for many of
the routine tasks encountered in a foreign country (i.e.,
128