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thedrifter
01-12-06, 06:30 AM
Speakers say deployments take toll on those left behind
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO ---- With her husband now on his third deployment in three years, Lisa Smith says the general public needs to show a greater appreciation for the challenges faced by spouses and children of those left stateside.

Smith's husband, a Marine Corps aviator stationed at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, has been gone since August.

"I just think there needs to be a realization by the American people that it's not just the service personnel that are sacrificing, it's also the families," Smith said.

And she's right, according to retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Norbert Ryan Jr., now president of the Military Officers Association of America.

"If someone doesn't make her and her child feel important, all else is lost," Ryan said during a panel discussion on military pay, benefits and family support and how those issues affect retention rates during a military gathering in San Diego on Wednesday.

Holding her infant son, Frankie, Smith told the panel that despite all the support programs provided by the military, it's the little things that can make a big difference.

"It's really in the day-to-day existence that you need help," the mother of three said. "It's the practical things like a gift card to McDonald's that can help."

The panel and an earlier one on the family's role in military re-enlistments were part of an annual, three-day conference at the San Diego Convention Center sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association and the U.S. Naval Institute.

For every 100 troops deployed, about 65 families are left behind, according to the Santa Ana-based group Operation Homefront, which provides support services to military families along with its partner group CincHouse.

Ryan, a former chief of Navy personnel, criticized Congress and the Bush administration for continuing to talk about reducing the overall size of the armed forces during a time of war.

"With a war going on, our leadership is out of touch," he said. "Our leaders are out of synch with the sacrifices being made."

He said the size of the Army needs to be increased in order to cut the number of deployments faced by Marines and National Guard and Reserve units.

"Every decision that's being made should take families into consideration," Ryan said. "If combat continues after three years, the retention rates will go way down because of all the stresses.

"This is not going to be a short-term war and we have start thinking and planning for the long term."

Frequent and lengthy deployments as well as cross-country transfers also threaten the retention rates, according to Thomas Hall, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.

Service members and their families cannot continue to sustain deployments that last as long as 18 months, Hall said, adding that Pentagon brass feel it is becoming imperative to reduce the time and frequency of deployments.

Hall said that his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has said people are moved around too much and that he wants to reduce the number of transfers and bring a predictability to deployments.

During deployments, the military needs to be sensitive to the needs of spouses and other family members, according to Sylvia Kidd, director of the Family Programs Association for the U.S. Army.

"Families today are not used to a protracted war and long and repeated deployments," Kidd said. "They will remember how they were treated during that time and that will impact future retention."

Joyce Raezer, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, said the No. 1 complaint in a recent survey of families of deployed service members was that their soldier, sailor, airman or Marine did not have enough time for family even when not overseas.

"The only way that will change is if we increase the overall size of the armed forces," Raezer said. "Families have to understand what they signed up for, but commanders have to realize what it does to families."

Upcoming budget debates in Congress will feature battles over how much to spend on equipment versus how much to spend on programs such as those that support families, Raezer predicted.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com. To comment, go to www.nctimes.com.

On the Web:

www.cinchouse.com

www.nmfa.org

www.operationhomefront.net

Ellie