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CNN Live Today

Counseling Familes of POWs, MIAs, Casualties of War

Aired April 11, 2003 - 11:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Many families -- like many families, military families, people living at Ft. Bliss in Texas, form a very, very close community. So how do they carry on in the face of a tragedy like this? Well, we'll try to answer that question this morning with the help of two family assistance officers from Ft. Bliss.
Peggy Brown and Nancy Mainor join us this morning to talk to us about how they help and talk through families who are dealing with this sort of thing.

Good morning. Thank you very much for -- for talking with us this morning. Let's start off with, first of all, the first question that comes to mind is how soon would your group actually be called in, Peggy, after a family finds out or receives the news about one of their loved ones perhaps being killed somewhere? How soon do you get called on the scene?

PEGGY BROWN, U.S. ARMY COUNSELOR: Well, we have gone to a 24- hour operation on the 21st of March. So we were already up and running. And the day that this incident occurred, as soon as the news went out that something had affected the 507th, our staff was in within the hour.

HARRIS: Yes. I know this is a very close knit community. I have actually spent some time on a military base beforen and I know how all these bases, the people all seem to rally together. I imagine there the people, even though they may not have suffered in their particular family, they had to rally around the families that did suffer.

BROWN: Yes, they did and it's an amazing thing to see families come together and support each other and do whatever they can to help those that are directly affected out.

HARRIS: Nancy, how do you talk a family through this kind of tragedy, particularly, I guess, in the first few hours or the first day or so when you first -- when you first become engaged with them? How do you talk them through something like this?

NANCY MAINOR, U.S. ARMY COUNSELOR: It's not a very easy thing. But what we do is allow them to pretty much direct us. Some want to talk, some don't. Sometimes the mere presence of someone being there who cares for them, there to support them.

But in some of the families that I did deal with, they did want to talk. And -- and I was able to provide them what assistance we could provide for them, offer them comforting things. If there were things that needed to be done, errands, business that needed to be taken care of and they may not have wanted to take care of those things right away.

HARRIS: Well, what do you do....

MAINOR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

HARRIS: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off there. I thought you were finished.

MAINOR: That's OK.

HARRIS: What do you do in the case of a family of a -- of a soldier that may have been killed overseas and that family does not live on the base? Say, for instance, a single soldier whose family would not be with them on the base? Do you also leave and go off base and work with families as well?

MAINOR: Yes, we do. Yes. As well as...

HARRIS: Is it different dealing with them in any way?

MAINOR: No, I haven't found it to be different because they're all family members and I'm a family member, too and it affect me greatly. Although that wasn't my particular soldier -- but I do know what those family members are going through.

It's a pretty unique situation, as being family members of soldiers, so we all kind of can share in the experience and have an idea of what the other is actually going through.

HARRIS: Peggy, let me ask you this final question here -- or at least hit this final topic here. We've also been talking about the -- the POWs. Now here's a case where the families know that something has happened to a loved one, they just don't knwo waht and they don't where that loved one is right now.

BROWN: Exactly.

HARRIS: Have you been talking at all to the families of the POWs there from -- from Ft. Bliss. I understand -- I think there are five right now. Have you talked with them? And is that situation different than dealing with one who's actually been -- a person who's actually been killed overseas?

BROWN: Yes, it's very different, because they still have the hope that their soldier is going to be coming home. We have talked with some of these families and we've worked with the casualty assistance officers that have been assigned to these families. But they're still hoping and that's very important to keep that hope alive. And we're all hoping and praying that those five come home safely.

HARRIS: Do you give them any sort of a -- I don't know -- some of a trick or something to help them deal with the anxiety or with the pain? Is there something? Is -- what kind of tactic do you use, or tell them to use?

BROWN: Just don't watch television constantly and keep your routine as normal as possible. Get in touch with others who have been POWs or who have had children that were POWs. And there again, they can be with some one who has gone through the same thing they have. And it makes it easier to cope.

HARRIS: Yes. I guess those who have been through it are the only ones who know what it's like to go through some thing like that. That's heartbreak (ph) to imagine.

BROWN: That's right.

HARRIS: Peggy Brown....

BROWN: Yes.

HARRIS: ...Nancy Mainor, thank you very much. Good luck to both of you ladies down the road.

(CROSSTALK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired April 11, 2003 - 11:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Many families -- like many families, military families, people living at Ft. Bliss in Texas, form a very, very close community. So how do they carry on in the face of a tragedy like this? Well, we'll try to answer that question this morning with the help of two family assistance officers from Ft. Bliss.
Peggy Brown and Nancy Mainor join us this morning to talk to us about how they help and talk through families who are dealing with this sort of thing.

Good morning. Thank you very much for -- for talking with us this morning. Let's start off with, first of all, the first question that comes to mind is how soon would your group actually be called in, Peggy, after a family finds out or receives the news about one of their loved ones perhaps being killed somewhere? How soon do you get called on the scene?

PEGGY BROWN, U.S. ARMY COUNSELOR: Well, we have gone to a 24- hour operation on the 21st of March. So we were already up and running. And the day that this incident occurred, as soon as the news went out that something had affected the 507th, our staff was in within the hour.

HARRIS: Yes. I know this is a very close knit community. I have actually spent some time on a military base beforen and I know how all these bases, the people all seem to rally together. I imagine there the people, even though they may not have suffered in their particular family, they had to rally around the families that did suffer.

BROWN: Yes, they did and it's an amazing thing to see families come together and support each other and do whatever they can to help those that are directly affected out.

HARRIS: Nancy, how do you talk a family through this kind of tragedy, particularly, I guess, in the first few hours or the first day or so when you first -- when you first become engaged with them? How do you talk them through something like this?

NANCY MAINOR, U.S. ARMY COUNSELOR: It's not a very easy thing. But what we do is allow them to pretty much direct us. Some want to talk, some don't. Sometimes the mere presence of someone being there who cares for them, there to support them.

But in some of the families that I did deal with, they did want to talk. And -- and I was able to provide them what assistance we could provide for them, offer them comforting things. If there were things that needed to be done, errands, business that needed to be taken care of and they may not have wanted to take care of those things right away.

HARRIS: Well, what do you do....

MAINOR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

HARRIS: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off there. I thought you were finished.

MAINOR: That's OK.

HARRIS: What do you do in the case of a family of a -- of a soldier that may have been killed overseas and that family does not live on the base? Say, for instance, a single soldier whose family would not be with them on the base? Do you also leave and go off base and work with families as well?

MAINOR: Yes, we do. Yes. As well as...

HARRIS: Is it different dealing with them in any way?

MAINOR: No, I haven't found it to be different because they're all family members and I'm a family member, too and it affect me greatly. Although that wasn't my particular soldier -- but I do know what those family members are going through.

It's a pretty unique situation, as being family members of soldiers, so we all kind of can share in the experience and have an idea of what the other is actually going through.

HARRIS: Peggy, let me ask you this final question here -- or at least hit this final topic here. We've also been talking about the -- the POWs. Now here's a case where the families know that something has happened to a loved one, they just don't knwo waht and they don't where that loved one is right now.

BROWN: Exactly.

HARRIS: Have you been talking at all to the families of the POWs there from -- from Ft. Bliss. I understand -- I think there are five right now. Have you talked with them? And is that situation different than dealing with one who's actually been -- a person who's actually been killed overseas?

BROWN: Yes, it's very different, because they still have the hope that their soldier is going to be coming home. We have talked with some of these families and we've worked with the casualty assistance officers that have been assigned to these families. But they're still hoping and that's very important to keep that hope alive. And we're all hoping and praying that those five come home safely.

HARRIS: Do you give them any sort of a -- I don't know -- some of a trick or something to help them deal with the anxiety or with the pain? Is there something? Is -- what kind of tactic do you use, or tell them to use?

BROWN: Just don't watch television constantly and keep your routine as normal as possible. Get in touch with others who have been POWs or who have had children that were POWs. And there again, they can be with some one who has gone through the same thing they have. And it makes it easier to cope.

HARRIS: Yes. I guess those who have been through it are the only ones who know what it's like to go through some thing like that. That's heartbreak (ph) to imagine.

BROWN: That's right.

HARRIS: Peggy Brown....

BROWN: Yes.

HARRIS: ...Nancy Mainor, thank you very much. Good luck to both of you ladies down the road.

(CROSSTALK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com