How Military Families Cope With Deployment

With thousands of our military service members deployed overseas, do you ever think about how the families they leave behind are coping?

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By Corey Allen-Young
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Story Created: May 27, 2011 at 11:29 AM AKDT

Story Updated: May 27, 2011 at 11:29 AM AKDT

With thousands of our military service members deployed overseas, do you ever think about how the families they leave behind are coping?

Although we live in a very proud military community, when our loved ones leave to serve it’s a long, tough road filled with tears, pride, and some anger until they get back.

Even with tools like Skype to help fill the void, sometimes it’s not enough.

That’s the reason why one local DJ who’s in the same boat wants to create a network of support they can turn to.

For K-FAT DJ Kimtagious, her days are filled with business as usual. 

But it’s when she's not working her two jobs that reality sets in that her family is missing her husband, Staff Sergeant Joshua Mendez, who is currently deployed in Afghanistan for 15 months.

“It is a day by day…I tend to try to keep myself busy so I don't think about it. It’s hard when you go home and there's nobody there,” said Mendez.

Debra Campbell and her kids can relate to Mendez’s situation.

“Sometimes she cries, sometimes I cry, sometimes Iko cries, sometimes all of us cries,” said Nolan Campbell, Debra’s young son.

Her husband, Tech Sergeant Eddie Campbell, is also deployed which has left her as the caretaker of their family.

She said her biggest stress reliever is doing yard work in the summer and chiseling ice down to the pavement in the winter.

“We have our little moments when the kids really miss him, and I can't do anything about it. We just sit there and cuddle,” Campbell said.

When you’re coping with the distance of a loved one in the military, even little things like seeing their face or hearing their voice matters, which are reasons why Mendez founded Operation Morale Boost.  The project combines care packages, donations and local shows to make sure that during soldiers’ absence, no one is forgotten.

Operation Morale Boost is an appreciation of the sacrifices military members and their families make every day.

Sacrifices, that with support, everyone can help ease the burden.

“When you marry a military member, you sign on the dotted line knowing that this could happen. For me it’s trying to be strong for me, for him, our daughter, and our family,” said Mendez.

It’s a support that Mendez wants to keep on giving and on June 11, Operation Morale Boost will have a fundraiser on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson at the Kashim Club on the Elmendorf side.

The event will include music, spoken word, dance, a fashion show, and good times so military members and their fans can kick back and relax.

“I want them to know and remind them why they are fighting…that they still have such a strong support system—that America still backs them,” said Mendez.

The cost is five dollars, and all of the money goes to sending out care packages to service men and women who are overseas. 

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