I have not read the book that the series is based on (and I have to admit I have never watch the show at all — nothing against the show just my personal distaste for television). This is a good read though and she does try and show that when we face deployment it’s hard on every family member — whether the spouse left behind is a wife, husband, enlisted, commissioned, etc. We all face the same fears, struggles, and difficulties.

Read on:

‘Army Wives’ author reaches out to fellow spouses

Aug 20, 2009

By Bob Mathews

FORT STEWART, Ga.– Tanya Biank, whose book “Army Wives” inspired the No. 1-rated Lifetime TV network show of the same name, will experience the same hurt and pain of separation as other 3rd ID families when the division deploys in less than two months.

Her husband, Lt. Col. Michael A. Marti, the division G2, and her sister, Lt. Col. Maria A. Biank, the division G6, will deploy from Fort Stewart with the division.

Although an officer’s wife Biank points out that separation pains are the same for all.

“Whether you are a private’s wife or a colonel’s wife, it still feels the same to have your husband deploy. You have that same hurt when they are away, when your loved one’s away and it harm’s way,” she said.

Regular back-to-back deployments with varying lengths and currently no end in sight are major issue facing today’s military, said Biank.

“It’s tough. It’s tough enough to go through a 12 or 15-month deployment, but to know that after your spouse comes back, in another year, he might be going back for 12 months or so, that’s very tough on families,” said Biank.

“It can be tough to be a family during war, because you get married to be together, right? You have a family so you can raise your kids together. And so that’s a big challenge.

Biank does believe, however, that after several years of Soldiers’ deployments, the military has gotten better about handling the separations, citing the many great programs the Army offers spouses and families.

“There was a time,” she said, “when it was confusing because everybody, every agency was doing their own thing to try to help military families, and it was confusing to the spouse to know where to go.” READ MORE

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