Military Lifestyle

RETURNING SOLDIERS
Ensuring Happy Military Homecomings

It's a very real part of your military lifestyle: military deployment can happen at any time.Then the day arrives when you arrive home to your family after your military deployment. Everyone expects to feel excited overjoyed, elated...but what about uncomfortable?

In military life, this happens, more often than you may think. So if it's happened to you, know that you have this in common with many of your military colleagues.

Getting back to military family life after military deployment takes time, skill, and heart.

Remember the 1940s movie The Best Years Of Our Lives? Three decorated military heroes return home from World War II to find that their wives, children, jobs - even their feelings - have changed and adjustments needed to be made.

At first, returning military fathers or mothers may find that young children or even older kids may act distant. Give your spouse and your kids time, and encourage them to be open and honest about their feelings. Let them know you understand, and talk about your feelings as you re-acclimate to civilian and military family life; let them get to know you again.

While you're deployed, staying current with your kids' school and afterschool activities can help them feel less separated from you. Encourage children to send letters, emails or drawings to Mom or Dad who are deployed. Set up a webcam so you can even see each other consistently. For the military spouse at home, talk about your deployed military spouse in everyday conversation. Your intentions to maintain those family connections count for a lot.

Military spouses may need to get to know each other again. Give yourself time to be alone together.

Don't wait too long to get down to the business of running the military family finances together again. Update each other on your financial status. If you made changes to any insurance policies, you may need to review your military insurance coverage. A financial advisor with particular military expertise can help you create a successful restructuring of your insurance policies if needed.

As long as you or your spouse serves in the military, military deployment is a fact of military life. Update and improve on your military deployment plan consistently. The next time military duty calls, you'll all feel prepared. Stay focused on managing your home base, your military mission, and maintaining the military family ties that bind, wherever you may be deployed.