Multiple deployments take toll on military families, experts say

Multiple deployments take toll on military families, experts say

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
myoung@dallasnews.com

One day back from a year's tour in Iraq, Army Capt. Nick Jefferson had just come home after running errands when he flipped on the TV and heard about the shootings at Fort Hood, where his wife, Erica, was working.

"She had called and left a message while I was out, telling me about it and saying that everything was OK," Jefferson said by phone from Killeen. "But you sure don't expect something like this to happen here, after you've come back from Iraq."


No one knows for certain what led to the mass shootings at the Soldier Readiness Center, where troops about to be deployed and others returning from overseas are processed. The suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was reportedly about to be deployed to Iraq.

But mental health experts and those who work with military families say the multiple deployments today's soldiers face lead to stresses that are different than those in past wars.
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Multiple deployments take toll on military families