“Dynamic Force Employment” When I first heard this term, I thought it was a new program designed to help military spouses find jobs. There are new initiatives being created all the time to support spouses and families and I thought this might be one of them. I was wrong.
9.42 million
The number of Military Health System beneficiaries in FY 2017, according to a Congressional Research Service brief issued earlier this year -- Defense Primer: Military Health System.
Understanding military culture and the ways military service and deployments impact couples is critical when providing counseling to military-connected clients. The Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences offers webinars which are specially designed to support clinicians who provide couples counseling to this population. This week we’re wrapping up our initial sessions of the 2018 Couples Webinar Series. On Thursday, we’ll be presenting all three sessions over the course of the day, starting at 10 a.m. Eastern.
When my husband decided to join the US Navy, he and I were still dating. I had recently graduated with my Master’s degree in social work and just started my first “real” job, working as a substance abuse counselor for incarcerated adolescents. I still remember the day he told me he was thinking of joining the military. He asked if I was okay with his decision. I said I supported him, but would have to decide if I wanted to follow him down this path.
I never served. My time would have been during the Vietnam War. But from 1970-1974, I completed my undergraduate studies under a 2-S student deferment; when President Nixon revoked the student deferment with a new draft bill in September 1971, the first to be impacted were men in the Class of ’75 – those a year behind me. When the draft lottery was held in August of 1971 for men in my cohort, I drew #264. (Had I been born on December 4th of 1952 instead of January 4th, I would have drawn #1.) And so I transitioned uninterrupted from undergraduate to graduate studies, completing my doctoral degree three years after the fall of Saigon.