Army focuses on children of warriors at AUSA Family Forums

By Rob McIlvaine
FMWRC Public Affairs

WASHINGTON, DC – The third day of the AUSA Family Forum series focused on the stress children are experiencing as a result of their parent or parents going off to war.

Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, chief of the Army Reserve and commanding general of the Army’s Reserve Command, reported on his experience with geographically dispersed Soldiers and their Families.

“A while ago, I promised a group of Soldiers and their Families stationed on the remote islands of Guam and American Somoa that I would be back to visit. That got me to thinking that we’ve got many ‘islands of communities’ across this nation. New York City, for instance, might be remote to someone who doesn’t have access to resources – either they don’t know what is available or how to get them, so the Virtual Installation is a great idea. Bring the resources to the Family rather than the Family having to travel to the installation,” Stultz said.

Laura, Stultz’s wife, is really the inspiration for this idea, he said.

“Whether you’re Active, Reserve or Army National Guard – no matter which component you’re in – you’re in the Army Family,” Laura Stultz said to a cheering audience.

“But we want that personal touch, that one-on-one that you can’t get from the internet. And besides, not everyone has access to a computer or the internet. So my dream was to have local permanent centers, just like the post office. And I’m not talking for Soldiers only, I’m talking for parents, grandparents, everyone.”

On September 12, her dream became a reality with the grand opening of the first pilot program for Army Strong Community Centers in Rochester, N.Y.

“This will be a place where anyone can go in and get help with ID cards, health concerns, summer camps, in other words, a place that will strengthen and enhance our Soldiers and their Families in the expeditionary force.”

With one-third of Active Families living off base, she said, her plan is to have these centers across the country, although this grandmother of five believes she’ll be old and in a rocking chair when her dream is fully realized.

Col. Kris Peterson told the crowd about the Military child and Adolescent Center of Excellence of Madigan Army Medical Center at Ft. Lewis, Wash. The center focuses resources on behavioral and emotional health screening and delivering psychoeducation and resilience-based strategies related to the unique stresses of military children.

“After eight years of war, our Army Families feel like they’re about to crash. We need clinical support for pre-school, school-age and adolescent children, and spouses because we’ve seen increased aggression, increased issues of child neglect or abuse and the outcomes of dealing with depression and anxiety on their own,” Peterson said.

Echoing Gen. Stultz, Peterson said there are islands of care across the country but they can’t do it all. As a result of the challenges of the rapidly growing up-tempo of the war, he said, the center is strategically looking at what’s out there – the quality of programs and how to access these programs that typify and understand what it’s like to be a military child.

“This is a work in progress that is now about 25 percent staffed with MEDCOM funding,” Peterson said.

Supporting Army Dads was presented by Tim Red, director of Military Programming, National Fatherhood Initiative.

“We need to help dads be better dads, not just teaching them how to change diapers,” Red said. To inspire military dads across the land he repeated what Gen. Douglas MacArthur said in 1942, “By profession I am a Soldier and take great pride in that fact. But I am prouder – infinitely prouder – to be a father.”