Colorado Springs – Rachelle Crevoiserat, the 18-year-old fiancée of an Army reservist in Iraq, went to Saturday’s event at the local YMCA, “Dealing with Deployment 101,” for one reason – company.
It wasn’t for the coping tips, the free book, the chance to send a video message to Iraq or the offers of financial assistance or car care, although they were appreciated.
“I’m hoping more than anything to realize I’m not alone,” Crevoiserat said.
It was just over a week ago, she said, that she received the “depressing” news that the third deployment of her 23-year-old soldier, Jay, would last 15 months, not 12.
Erin Prater, the 20-year-old wife of an Army regular sent last fall to the Middle East for a second time, said she hoped to meet other wives her age in the same situation.
“I’m very angry and frustrated with the Army,” she said. “I don’t think all the higher-ups understand how hard it is for the families because the war’s gone on so long. I was still in high school when Saddam fell.”
The dozen or so spouses and parents of service men and women who gathered for a couple of hours were probably outnumbered by the representatives of organizations there to offer them support, from the Military Family Assistance Project to the Citizen Soldier Connection.
“I can hold down everything OK,” Prater said. “The hardest part is missing him.”
Vicki Cody, the wife of Army Vice Chief of Staff Richard A. Cody, was the featured speaker of the event, sponsored by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and the National Homeland Defense Foundation.
Cody’s husband has been back and forth to the Middle East, and her two sons have served as Apache helicopter pilots.
“We didn’t count on all these deployments,” she said. “It’s way harder to send your kid off to combat than your husband. Our older son was deployed. It was like a punch in the stomach when he left.”
Cody said the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed not only the lives of firefighters, police officers and the victims’ families, but it drastically and irrevocably changed the lives of military families.
“These kids started deploying, and it was back to back and over and over again. … I let the pride outweigh any fear or misgivings I have. They chose to do this,” she said.
Cody wrote a book, “Your Soldier, Your Army: A Parent’s Guide,” to help her through her sons’ deployments. It is available for free through the Association of the United States Army at www.ausa.org.
Jennifer Holloway, 23, was married only a few months before her husband left for Iraq. The recent news of the three-month extension of his deployment was difficult to take, she said.
Now living with her parents, she was eager to meet other young military wives with husbands in Iraq.
“I understand why they’re there,” Holloway said of the missing husbands as she hastily wiped tears from her eyes. “But it would be nice to have them home.”
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com.
