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CNN Live At Daybreak

Military Families Always Prepared for Deployments

Aired October 30, 2001 - 05:50   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: U.S. military forces called up for duty left the U.S. quickly, some of them without even a chance to say goodbye. Now their families know that's just part of a job, but as CNN's Kathy Slobogin reports this morning, it doesn't make it any easier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fort Bragg, North Carolina is home of the Army's 82nd Airborne, the famous All Americans, known for their ability to be anywhere in the world within 18 hours. While these soldiers have to be ready for rapid deployment, their families have to be ready for something else.

(on camera): For families here, trouble someplace on the globe could mean a phone call. The phone call means that within 15 minutes to an hour a parent could be gone. They don't know where or for how long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could receive a phone call at the office and it could be someone from his unit telling me that he's -- that he's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There have been times that all you get is that phone call. You don't have a chance to really say goodbye.

SLOBOGIN: Trish and Diane are veteran military spouses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will have been married 18 years next month and I think he has managed to actually be home on our anniversary date four times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My youngest child is 9 years old, my oldest one just turned 12, and out of my youngest one's nine years, my husband has been home probably two years of her life, if that.

SLOBOGIN: While the soldiers prepare to leave home for war, the rest of the community here draws more tightly together. Since the September 11 attack, Irwin Middle School principal Bob Kirkpatrick has to go through three different security checks every day to get to school. Each night, the school is swept for bombs, mail is carefully screened, but the schools on this base remain a strong center for families torn apart. BOB KIRKPATRICK, PRINCIPAL: I think during those times the relationships they have with folks that are here become even more important to them and they seem to grip on more tightly. Teachers can be that anchor, and I think our teachers feel that sense of responsibility.

SLOBOGIN: Children at Irwin have had to learn to live without seeing a parent for long periods, up to three years. Teachers here step up to the plate.

VALERIE KRUM, FIFTH GRADE TEACHER: And to teach with your heart at times. You have to all of a sudden realize that the curriculum that you're teaching, you know adjectives or adverbs, just isn't as important to them as you think it is at that -- at that time for their education.

SLOBOGIN: Have you ever had a student whose parent was deployed and didn't come back?

KRUM: Last year I had a parent and I still get emotional about it. The child -- he -- the parent wasn't necessarily deployed but he was on a mission over there in Vietnam and he did not come back.

SLOBOGIN: Are a lot of the children afraid of that?

KRUM: In the back of their minds that's always there.

SLOBOGIN: Genesis, a sixth grader who's father has been away for most of the last nine years, became especially anxious after the September attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My older daughter has always been an honor roll student, straight A student, but within the first few days we noticed the change in her. Her grades started plummeting. She brought home her first few D's. There's always that fear that daddy may have to walk out the door, and I think that was bothering her. She knew that at any moment daddy could get that phone call and she didn't know when.

SLOBOGIN: The school pays special attention to children whose fears and emotions are overwhelming them.

Here sixth graders are going through counseling to put them in touch with their feelings, and this teacher has what she calls a peace circle each week where students can talk about anything that's bothering them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to grow up without a parent.

SLOBOGIN: The teacher says sometimes just being able to say what you are afraid of helps.

CHRISTOPHER: I hope that my dad gets to be OK because he's gotten easy off different wars but this one's a little bit different.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, Christopher, I know you've been concerned about your dad and he's -- you live on Pope, right? OK. Well we're all thinking about him and we're -- we know that he's OK. You've heard from him, right?

CHRISTOPHER: Three times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three times, so we'll keep -- we'll keep in our -- in our hearts and our thoughts and we're all here to support Christopher, aren't we?

(CHILDREN SPEAKING)

CHRISTOPHER: Because it seems he's been gone for a month already. He was on the first flight out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

SLOBOGIN: Parents here say it helps to tell their children that the soldier's job is important, making things safe for the rest of us. But it's not easy to reassure a child when you're afraid yourself of the knock on the door with bad news.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have that fear. You don't let the fear take over your life but that fear is always there.

SLOBOGIN: Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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