Another War Casualty: Soldiers' Marriages

Stress Of Serving In Combat Is Felt At Home As Divorce Rate For Servicemen And Women Climbs

(CBS)  The war in Iraq has sparked combat we see, and combat we don't, CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts reports.

"My wife came over and I actually threw her on the ground. It was like 'what happened?' It was scary," one veteran says.

"When he first got back and he was first sleeping in the bed with me, I mean, every little movement, just any kind of movement, he'd be like (waving) up and looking around and (saying) 'What!,' 'What?,' 'what?' I'd be like, 'Honey, I just moved my leg,'" his wife says.

"The war's just beginning for these couples," says Dr. Michael Wagner, director of the Family Medical Assistance Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Startled by high divorce rates, Wagner says he was also dismayed by the limited resources available to military couples, so he started a retreat program with the help of Ross Perot. It's a week of healing for couples wounded by war.

"When a warrior comes back, we take care of their physical needs immediately — but the problem is, they go home then. They have the parade, they have the party and a month later everybody forgets them," Wagner says.

Major Sean Hurley and his wife, Kelly, have worked through the stresses of Sean's deployments.

"Each individual in the marriage has just grown over the period of time and they've grown apart, and so they're not the same people," Kelly says. "So you need to find a way to come back together."

"We had some serious issues, and you know, we worked through them, and this could have saved us a lot of time and misery," Sean adds.

The retreat is free of charge, and couples qualify on a first-come, first-serve basis. Wagner believes the Department of Defense should fund the program.

"For what it costs to run a retreat for a year — 15 retreats for a year — maybe $1 million? That's chump change," he says. "That's one missile."

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The Phoenix Project is sponsored by the Military, Veteran and Family Assistance Foundation. You can find out more about the project at www.mvfa.org or can call them at [phone].

[mh4cbs1]

Come now, you are so unfair to President Bush. He is quite sane, and he has admitted to "mistakes being made".

Bush was hand-picked by George Shultz, James Baker, Cheney and the old Neo-Con guard precisely for his last name, his being easily manipulated, his wanting desparately to please these people.

Bush could care less about those beneath his social class. Sucker middleclass kids dying in Iraq for example. He was well-connected enough to easily avoid the draft to Vietnam. But he wants approval from his Dad and the elite rich and powerful who he represents.

So all this talk about sociopath or lunatic is rubbish. He sees himself as the one anointed to carry out the NeoCon mission. Really, if you do not understand the NeoCon vision of the world you will never understand Bush. The NeoCons JUST DON'T CARE about the death and destruction, other than it being a political obstacle. As long as they can maintain the power, they will stay the course.

They will NEVER leave Iraq, no matter the death and destruction. They will wait it out to end up with Permanent US Bases, and access to the Oil Fields and regional dominance. Who cares how many middleclass kids die in Iraq? Geez, get real.

[skyk-2009]

How anyone can turn an Attack on this nation by a bunch of Religious Fanatics based in Afganistan into this God Awlful Nightmare just boggles the mind. For the first time in our history we have a completely INCOMPETENT leader who is without a doubt in my mind, INSANE. The problem is that our best and brightest have to suffer and suffer mightly because we all lined up for the Kool Aid.