Stryker Brigade News

“This is something very important to have you all sitting here listening to our ordeals as children,” said Chalencia Moss, 15, a junior at Lakes High School whose father is a soldier at Fort Lewis.

She was part of a panel discussion of teens.

“Most people just worry about the soldiers, but it’s also about the children who are affected,” she said.

Counselors from schools at Fort Lewis shared a curriculum they’ve been using for a few years now. It’s aimed at teaching kids to be resilient in coping with feelings of sadness or anger over a deployment.

The chief of psychiatry at Madigan Army Medical Center talked about ways children of all ages react emotionally to the deployment of a parent overseas, and the emotions they feel once dad or mom comes home. Lt. Col. Kris Peterson also described how a returning service member who’s having trouble dealing with the stress of combat – or the effects of a mild traumatic brain injury – might face special challenges coping with the emotional needs of his or her children.

The panel of teens talked about the pros and cons of their lives as military kids.

They said it’s important to have teachers, counselors and others who understand some of the circumstances they might be going through.

“When a kid is acting out, or when they’re drawing away from class or having different behavioral issues, sometimes it’s not because they’re a bad kid,” said Amanda Humphrey, 16, a student at Graham-Kapowsin High School. Her dad is an Air National Guardsman.

“Sometimes it’s because of issues that are going on at home, because their parent is gone, or their parent got back and they’re having trouble adapting.”

Washington is home to the seventh-largest concentration of active-duty military service members in the nation. The state’s installations have sent more than 35,000 to Iraq or Afghanistan.

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