While They're at War by Kristin Henderson - Book Report/Review Example

WHILE THEYRE AT WAR Order No. 209151 March 2008 WHILE THEYRE AT WAR Kristin Henderson, While Theyre AtWar: The True Story of American Families on the Homefront published by Houghton Mifflin (February 2, 2006), pp 336. The book While Theyre At War is a series of absorbing and tragic stories put together from dozens of interviews with the husbands and wives of those serving in the U.S. military. It is a poignant book that delves into the complexities of military life. It is a true story of American families on the home front. Henderson shows how during war the casualities are not restricted to the war zones but also on the people left behind. The loneliness of the women is no less than the devastating effect of bombs, the fear too can be as traumatic as it is for the military during combats. The book focuses on the lives of Marissa and Beth, two military wives whose husbands are deployed at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Both women are new military spouses and new to the challenges of being separated from their loved one.  The book follows them through the year, as they anxiously wait for news of their loved one’s safety while balancing life’s every day tasks. Kristin Henderson, the author of the book, portrays the hard aspects of military culture prevalent both on and off Americas military bases. Being herself married to a navy chaplain she is aware of the hardships. The stories she weaves are about what life is like to women who have been married to men in the military. Their stories and experiences have hardly been heard or seen by the outside world. Very rarely do we get to see the happy reunions or the tearful farewells. The book paints a vivid picture of the costs of being married to the military, anticipatory grief; strongly enforced rules concerning infidelity; isolation and alienation from the civilian world; homecoming violence; and much more. Kristin Henderson, the author is herself the wife of a veteran. She is a journalist married to a military chaplain who has served in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. She is also an active member of the Marine Corpss Key Volunteer family readiness program. She is the author of Driving by Moonlight, which tells of her experiences when her husband was posted in Afghanistan. Kristin Henderson contributes regularly to the Washington Post Magazine and is also a columnist for Military.com.  She has appeared in many TV shows as well. Henderson uses the trust she has gained from the military families and the easy access to military staff to draw an in-depth portrait and a "powerful, revealing, and sometimes painful look behind the scenes" (Booklist) of the modern military. The book is mainly on two women, Marissa Bootes and Beth Pratt, who are very different from each other. One is a newlywed and the other one is left behind with a small child struggling with jobs and caring for the child when their husbands are deployed abroad. They live with loneliness and with the constant fear of their husbands being killed by deadly bombs. When their husbands leave for Iraq they both are forced to face a life of intense isolation at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Here Henderson shows how these two women have different ways of coping with the hardships. Bootes joins the Family Readiness Group early. This helps her to cope with the loneliness, isolation and pain that came with her husbands departure on deployment. Pratt, however, had not heard of the support group. She gets really depressed and almost on the verge of suicide before she seeks help. It is a known fact that the wives sometimes develop suicidal depression.. This aspect has been illustrated very well in the book. When Beth Pratts husband wants to get Beth a gun so that she can protect herself she refuses saying that had she a gun the last time he was in Iraq, she surely would have killed herself with it. Keith Henderson when asked what made her write the book says "..... in a democracy like ours, civilians are the ones who send us to war. So their lack of experience with wars consequences seemed a dangerous development to me. I wanted to write a book that would help civilians walk a mile in the shoes of the men and women whose loved ones are fighting and dying for the rest of us. I was also hoping a book like this would help other military spouses know theyre not in this alone, because isolation can be a real problem for some of us." (Interview) Henderson wants the American public as well as the policy-makers to know that the men and women portrayed by her in the book are not faceless young men and women who can be disposed off. As she puts it each one is "an individual, a precious, irreplaceable human being who is loved by a mother, a father, a sister, a boyfriend. A wife." The majority of Americans not connected to the armed forces do not know what life in the army is like since nobody has told them about it. This aspect is well brought out in the book. In Chapter 1 she says The homefront gets a lot less screen-time -- the camera swings around to focus on military families just long enough to peek through the window at the tearful goodbye and the joyful homecoming and, in between, the occasional yellow ribbon moment. The rest of the home front experience is hidden behind a closed door." Again when Henderson complains to an army officer that civilians just dont understand what military spouses go through, and he says, "Maybe thats because we dont tell them." At this Henderson ponders "And thats true, we dont. Its partly out of pride. We dont want to admit how much of a struggle it is sometimes. And partly because we feel vulnerable — when youre emotionally on edge, it can be hard to open up." A glance at the table of contents of the book gives you an idea of what the book is about. The book has powerful chapters on farewells, casualty notification; the challenges of military children faced by schools, electronic age of cell phones, emails, CNN, alienation, homecoming. The chapter on reunion is insightful and enlightening. For the people in the army terrible news can come anytime. In one poignant scene Henderson describes how Teresa Metzdorf , an army wife gets a call from her husband from a military hospital in Iraq while she is at home watching American Idol". He informs her that his leg has been blown off during an explosion. She then spends seven months with her husband at Walter Reed Army Medical helping him in his rehabilitation. During war homecoming also poses problems. "Soldiers do come back changed, and their spouses are changed, too. Youve both grown and you might come back strong or you might be damaged," Henderson says. Those who come home with psychological problems like the post-traumatic stress disorder and problems face a Veterans Administration health care system that is under-funded. The book is educative as well as engrossing. The authors experience as an insider helps her to reveal difficult and often hidden aspects of military culture. The revealing scenes from the lives of military families illustrate the truths behind living in the shadow of the military, like a wounded soldier reconstructing his body with his wifes help, a widow rebuilding her life with the help of family, friends and community. There are also facts and statistics showing us what kind of government we have and how the government does not support the military men and their families. It has well-researched, well-documented entirely credible facts. That the book has about ten pages of references proves that it is well researched. It is the best form of non-fiction. It is a book you cannot put down. The author puts forth a different perspective, an often-overlooked perspective about the war in Iraq. She shows how soldiers do not get the kind of support and counseling they need, and the fact that the wives may find it difficult to let go the independence they had during their husbands absence. Among all the war books flooding the market, this book stands out because of this The book is beautifully written. Henderson has a great talent for painting vivid pictures. The picture she paints is in shades of gray. Nothing in the stories is depicted as being absolutely wrong or absolutely right. No one is portrayed as a villain Towards the end of the book, an Army wife who has undergone all the loneliness and trauma of her husbands deployments says there would be something wrong with the army women if they were not mad at the uncertainty that prevails in every minute of their lives. She says that the women need not be stoic like traditional army wives are shown to be. "This suck it up and dont complain is for the birds" is not for us. This is the essence of the book. Let the world know what is happening to people who are made to go to war and how the people they leave behind suffer. Both the civilians and the political leader need to know what a war costs to the society. References 1. Kristin Henderson (2006), While Theyre At War: The True Story of American Families on the Homefront published by Houghton Mifflin , pp 336 2. http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/henderson/#intro Read More

The book is mainly on two women, Marissa Bootes and Beth Pratt, who are very different from each other. One is a newlywed and the other one is left behind with a small child struggling with jobs and caring for the child when their husbands are deployed abroad. They live with loneliness and with the constant fear of their husbands being killed by deadly bombs. When their husbands leave for Iraq they both are forced to face a life of intense isolation at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Here Henderson shows how these two women have different ways of coping with the hardships. Bootes joins the Family Readiness Group early. This helps her to cope with the loneliness, isolation and pain that came with her husbands departure on deployment. Pratt, however, had not heard of the support group. She gets really depressed and almost on the verge of suicide before she seeks help. It is a known fact that the wives sometimes develop suicidal depression.. This aspect has been illustrated very well in the book. When Beth Pratts husband wants to get Beth a gun so that she can protect herself she refuses saying that had she a gun the last time he was in Iraq, she surely would have killed herself with it. Keith Henderson when asked what made her write the book says "..... in a democracy like ours, civilians are the ones who send us to war. So their lack of experience with wars consequences seemed a dangerous development to me. I wanted to write a book that would help civilians walk a mile in the shoes of the men and women whose loved ones are fighting and dying for the rest of us. I was also hoping a book like this would help other military spouses know theyre not in this alone, because isolation can be a real problem for some of us." (Interview) Henderson wants the American public as well as the policy-makers to know that the men and women portrayed by her in the book are not faceless young men and women who can be disposed off. As she puts it each one is "an individual, a precious, irreplaceable human being who is loved by a mother, a father, a sister, a boyfriend. A wife." The majority of Americans not connected to the armed forces do not know what life in the army is like since nobody has told them about it. This aspect is well brought out in the book. In Chapter 1 she says The homefront gets a lot less screen-time -- the camera swings around to focus on military families just long enough to peek through the window at the tearful goodbye and the joyful homecoming and, in between, the occasional yellow ribbon moment. The rest of the home front experience is hidden behind a closed door." Again when Henderson complains to an army officer that civilians just dont understand what military spouses go through, and he says, "Maybe thats because we dont tell them." At this Henderson ponders "And thats true, we dont. Its partly out of pride. We dont want to admit how much of a struggle it is sometimes. And partly because we feel vulnerable — when youre emotionally on edge, it can be hard to open up." A glance at the table of contents of the book gives you an idea of what the book is about. The book has powerful chapters on farewells, casualty notification; the challenges of military children faced by schools, electronic age of cell phones, emails, CNN, alienation, homecoming. The chapter on reunion is insightful and enlightening. For the people in the army terrible news can come anytime. In one poignant scene Henderson describes how Teresa Metzdorf , an army wife gets a call from her husband from a military hospital in Iraq while she is at home watching American Idol". He informs her that his leg has been blown off during an explosion. She then spends seven months with her husband at Walter Reed Army Medical helping him in his rehabilitation. During war homecoming also poses problems. "Soldiers do come back changed, and their spouses are changed, too. Youve both grown and you might come back strong or you might be damaged," Henderson says. Those who come home with psychological problems like the post-traumatic stress disorder and problems face a Veterans Administration health care system that is under-funded. Read More