Families also pay the price for repeated war tours

Families also pay the price for repeated war tours
TheNewsTribune.com
ADAM ASHTON; STAFF WRITER
Published: 05/13/12

Resilient, tough, experienced, professional. The Army uses words like these to describe U.S. soldiers in the post-9/11 era who have had to adapt to the new normal of repeat combat tours.

The Army’s No. 2 officer, Gen. Lloyd Austin, said on a visit to Joint Base Lewis-McChord this spring that the “high up-tempo” of soldiers going on multiple overseas missions was challenging but had left the military with a “highly trained and incredibly resilient force.”

The same words apply to the spouses, children and other loved ones of oft-deployed troops. Thousands of families in the South Sound are now coping with the absence of soldiers who have gone to do dangerous work in Afghanistan for the better part of a year.

Tommie Polizzotti is one such spouse. She will spend Mother’s Day today without her husband around to make pancake breakfast for their four kids.

“It takes a special woman,” said Maj. Dave Polizzotti, a Lewis-McChord officer on his third deployment. “She is a smart, strong, capable wife.”
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