[mcmama]

Thanks. Where is the article to be published?

I live in a community where there are a lot of air force families. We joke that the minute a parent is deployed, all the stuff of life happens - kids get colds or yucky annoying things like impetigo, some idiot at the grocery store fender bends you, etc - and as soon as deployment is over, life is serene and predictable again. Actually, it was like that in my family, my father was a civilian commercial airline pilot, and every time he was gone on a trip there was something unexpected for my mom to cope with.

Another important question for any article about military families is the effect of multiple short term deployments of several months vs a single deployment of a year or longer. The stresses are different.