Wives on the Homefront
Since You Went Away includes WWII letters from lovers and wives at home while their husbands and boyfriends were away at war. While I was reading this I found it hard to realize that they were away from each other for years on end. I don’t have any relatives over in Iraq, so I can’t relate to the wives and girlfriends now who’s significant others are in Iraq, but after reading Since You Went Away I feel that there was more love and desire to stay faithful to their significant others during WWII than there is now with the war in Iraq despite how long they would be apart.
Though many women and men stay faithful to each other during this war in Iraq, there are exceptions.
“The news that their yearlong tour was lengthened by three months hit the team hard, says Del Valle. ‘That was the worst. It’s like when you’re real thirsty, and you’re about to reach for the bottle—and somebody pulls it far away from you.’ Midway through medic Jones’s tour, his wife called to ask for a divorce. ‘I’m not mad at her, because I can’t blame her,’ he says. ‘She was tired of being alone.’ Jones has been deployed to Iraq two of the past five years, which has left him little time to see his children, now ages 4 and 2, grow up.”
War in Iraq Changing American Soldiers
Jones has only been in Iraq for two years. He is helping support his family, and he still loves his wife and children. Unfortunately for him, his wife didn’t want to be alone. No one knows how long Americans will be in Iraq, and I think that some wives tend to fret about having their husbands away from them for so long. Love and infatuation are not what they used to be. The difference might be that there are more men still in America during this war than during WWII. I don’t believe that women want to be with other men because they don’t love their husbands, I think that they just want to be taken care of and supported and have a family unit. It can be difficult for women to care for their families single handedly, so instead of waiting for their husbands to come home, they would rather find another man to take their husband’s place. That is really unfortunate in my opinion, because from the husband’s perspective I would imagine that they want to support their families and talk to them as much as possible and come home to their families when their time comes.
Patriotism seems to have been much more abundant during WWII. Since September 11th American’s patriotism increased greatly, but since the war we have seen picketers and protesters who are completely against the war and don’t support our troops over in Iraq. We don’t have posters saying how patriotic it is if you write your soldier daily, mainly because we have internet. We heard from a classmate that when he was serving in Iraq he received letters because they didn’t have access to the internet. People who tend to stay around the base might have more access to the internet. Milblogs are a popular way for soldiers to communicate with their loved ones, which can help military wives stay faithful to their husbands.
March 25, 2008
Anna Mulrine (Soldiers in Iraq) How the War in Iraq is Changing the American Soldier
Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith Since You Went Away
April 14th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I think you are absolutely right that patriotism plays a huge role in the emotional connections of soldiers and their loved ones back home. Before Vietnam, Americans were much more patriotic in their beliefs and had greater romantic ideas of what war would be like. It almost seems as though every war is the same when you consider the usual rise in patriotic emotions and publicity at the beginning, and then the eventual realization that every war is horrific and takes a toll on everyone involved (both at home and on duty). I think the loss of such extreme devotion and faithfulness can also be contributed to many changes in our society over time, including the changing roles of women who now have much more feminist viewpoints considering their futures and roles in society.
But obviously I also agree with you that this is not always the case and there are many people back home who are holding on tighter to their loved ones than ever before because of the internet. It seems to me from many of the blogs that I have been reading that it is the desire of the soldier to return to fight that has been taking an even greater toll on families as a whole. And from personal experience, I worked with a woman raising 4 kids practically on her own, who had grown used to being a “single mom” while her husband was in Iraq. She told me that he felt uneasy whenever he would return home and she knew that it was because he had become accustomed to being on duty and wanted to go back more than he wanted to stay at home.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
“Since September 11th American’s patriotism increased greatly, but since the war we have seen picketers and protesters who are completely against the war and don’t support our troops over in Iraq.”
I think because of September 11th there was patriotism in America, but I don’t think it went too far past hanging the U.S flag. I didn’t even know that we had a U.S flag until that happened.
And I’m not really sure how divorcing someone is going to make things better at home. It sucks that they’re not around but it seems to me that the wives and girlfriends come into the picture after the decision to go into the military is already made. They should know what they’re getting into and they should support their soldier.
There are a lot of stories out there about soldiers getting divorced. First, I think divorce is sad in general, but if the wives back home feel lonely, do they not think their soldiers feel lonely away from home? All they have are pictures and maybe a phone call to comfort them.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think that, unless there’s some other reasons, military wives are selfish divorcing their soldiers while they’re still deployed. they could at least wait for them to get back home first.
April 16th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
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