Do the Math: Soldiers' Return Plus 9 Months Equals Base Baby Boom

Now this is the kind of article I enjoy reading, except for the whole re-deploying bit. It is interesting to me to see the trend or the pattern between soldiers' returns and the ensuing fruits of romantic entanglement that follow. I would have to look for more data on this issue, but I do not believe that this is only a recent occurrence. I have a neighbor that lives just up the street from me. They have two little boys and he's been deployed right before each was conceived. (ponders)

Do the Math: Soldiers' Return Plus 9 Months Equals Base Baby Boom

By KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press Writer
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.

Army Spc. John Luckey and his wife, Kerry, already had five children and no plans for more when he came home from a year's duty in Iraq. But there was romance in the California air when the entire family went on a vacation to see the giant redwoods.

Nine months later, Kerry Luckey gave birth to a daughter, EmLee Rae.

Apparently many military couples at Fort Campbell celebrated like the Luckeys when about 20,000 soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division came home last fall, because the military hospital here is now seeing a baby boom.

The hospital...


...expects to deliver 210 babies a month soon, nearly twice the usual number of deliveries, and more are expected at other nearby hospitals in Tennessee and Kentucky.

"You go around town and there are these big bellies everywhere. It's kind of fun to have all the babies around," said Kerry Luckey, who lives in Clarksville, near this Army post.

A temporary increase in births is not uncommon after soldiers return, but the boom this year is the biggest the post has seen in decades, said Lt. Col. Diane Adams, chief of women's health at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital.

The base is seeing "a lot more folks with family on the mind when they returnedthis time around," Adams said.

About 19,000 soldiers returned to Fort Stewart, Ga., in the first months of 2006, and the hospital there saw a baby boom nine months later, delivering more than 100 babies a month, compared with 76 per month the previous year. Fort Hood in Texas saw deliveries peak at 289 in March 2006, well above the 213 average.

Lt. Trena Buggs, a labor and delivery nurse at Blanchfield, got pregnant herself not long after her husband, a Special Forces soldier, returned from Iraq in early 2006, and she gave birth in May. She knew what to expect when the 101st Airborne came back between August and December of last year.

"We knewthat any time the soldiers are deployed, we knew the one thing they liked to do best when they come home is get a little bit of loving," she said.

In many cases, the father was back in Iraq by the time the baby arrived; many soldiers have heard their children's first cries via cell phone.

In the Fort Campbell hospital's busy maternity waiting room, many new mothers do not even seem to notice when Brahms' lullaby starts playing over the public address system _ the signal that another baby has just been born.

Adams hears the lullaby about seven times a day.

"We should be close to 2,300 for the year," she said. "Last year we delivered1,352, to give you a comparison."

The baby boom at Fort Campbell is expected to continue through December, which also happens to be when three units from the 101st Airborne are set to return to Iraq. Another three units are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan early next year.

About 20 percent of the new mothers at Fort Campbell are active-duty soldiers themselves, Adams said.

New mothers are exempt from deployment for four months. But after that, husband-and-wife soldiers have to arrange for child care if they are both sent overseas. Often, relatives or close friends take care of the children.

Many soldiers at Fort Campbell have beensent to Iraq three times already. Back-to-back tours can play havoc with family planning.

"When you're in your first deployment, if you haven't started your family already, you think, `Well, we'll go ahead and do that after the first one,'" Adams said. "They've put it off long enough, and now they want to get going on getting the family situation straightened out."

Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Being a Deployed Military Wife

OK. So I'm not a wife. I'm a husband. But I assure you, the worries are the same, the responsibilities are the same, the stress is the same. I'm a full time student as well as a full time single parent of 3 great kids. But biggest and foremost, I'm a full time deployed spouse.

All of our dynamics (deployed spouses and families) are different, but our needs are basically the same. We want to be able to communicate with our spouse that is deployed, however it is possible. If we have kids, we want our spouse to be able to communicate with them also. We knew what we asked for when we signed up, but we're not afraid to take help when it's offered.

Your first stop, if you haven't already, is to go to the Family Readiness Center at your local base. They'll have a list of programs and benefits that you can utilize.

After that, go here. http://www.iraqwarveterans.org/free_for_troops.htm and see what all you can do for your family and for your deployed Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine.

Additionally, many states have extra benefits for families of deployed service members. Check your local state governments web page for details.

If you'd like to help out my family or my deployed spouse, e-mail me at drexxell@hotmail.com and I will send you the information you need. Put "I want to help" in the subject line. These same services can be applied to any deployed service member or their family as long as you know their address.

Also, don't forget to look into Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA)(Formerly Soldiers and Sailors Act). This is especially use full for guard and reserve members who have been activated as it relates to their debts incurred prior to being called to active duty (Credit cards, car loans, mortgage loans). Many times, credit card companies will follow the directions of the SCRA for active duty members who have been deployed. Call your credit card company and ask.

As for cell phones, check this out http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/06/military_cellphone_cancelcontracts_070628w/.
This was just passed in June of 2007. Deployed members can have their cell phone accounts put on "Military Suspense" for the duration of their deployment. That means no monthly service charges on their phones (which they can't use because they have no coverage). It doesn't effect phones you're still using at home. Basically, call your cell phone provider and see what they require to make this happen.

My many thanks go out to the organizations that donate their time, money, and effort to supporting our deployed troops and their families.

Special thanks and praise goes out to the deployed Service Members themselves and the families they've left behind. God's safety to you all and God's speed home.

If there's anything I can do for your family or for your deployed member, please let me know.

For spouses and their deployed members, just remember this "It's not worth getting into a pissing contest on who's got it worse." The situation sucks from both sides, but for different reasons. Remember that you love each other. Remember that you love your family. Remember that war has bad effects on people and don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it.

http://www.militaryonesource.com/skins/MOS/home.aspx will give you a lot of tips on how to cope. Additionally, they'll give you 8 sessions of personal or family counseling, no questions asked, all billed to TriCare.

Find the support groups. Get involved in your spouses group at your base. If one isn't active, make noise and help create one. Best of luck to you all.