Month of the Military Child is important to remember

Published April 25, 2006
By Diane Bradley
Family Advocacy Program Assistant

DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- April has been designated the Month of the Military Child. In 1983, then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger established the month to recognize “the essential role that military child care services and youth activities play in fostering readiness and enhancing the quality of life of military families. We take great pride in setting aside the month to recognize the contributions and personal sacrifices our children make for our corps.”

Many military children experience constant change. They move frequently -- having to change schools and make new friends.

They usually don’t have the luxury of having grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins close by, so they have to develop their own support system within the military community. They also experience the major stressor of deployments.

They have to learn ways to deal with one (sometimes both) parents being deployed to undisclosed locations.

These are hard enough, but add to this the fact that we are in the middle of a war and the stress increases.

And yet, somehow these children thrive.

Some better known military children are singer Christina Aguilera, whose father served in the Army; actor Robert Duval, whose father served in the Navy; singer Emmy Lou Harris, whose father served in the Marines; and actor Blair Underwood, whose father served in the Air Force.

It takes a special kind of child to be a military child. This is why they are recognized for the entire month of April.