Families across the country are coming together for the holidays, taking advantage of vacation time and traveling long distances to be with loved ones.
But at North Carolina's Fort Bragg military base--home to the 18th Airborne Corps and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command--some families are spending the holidays apart.
"It's hard, especially this time of year," said Terri, whose husband, a company commander, is currently deployed. "This is the first time he will be gone at Christmas. He has been deployed before but never over the holiday season."
The base would not release the last names of those deployed or where they are stationed.
Terri leads the company's Family Readiness Group, which is part of a program established in the 1980s to provide information and support to soldiers' families. Nearly 12,000 family members currently reside on base and every company at Fort Bragg has a readiness group.
In volunteering to take the job of the group's leader, Terri is following an army tradition.
"It's not something you have to do, it's just something that the commander's wife will do to support her husband's career. It helps if the commander and [group] leader are married because you can get information a little easier," she said, laughing.
Linda Ross, who has been involved with family readiness groups since she was married 18 years ago, recalled spending Christmas apart from her husband, Blair, during Operation Desert Storm.
"One afternoon in August, he called and said, ODon't hold dinner for me, I'm going to be late.' He came home nine months later," she said.
Though the departure was unexpected, Ross did not lament her husband's absence.
"We were just so proud that our husbands were doing what they were doing," Ross said. "I knew that this was his career and that this was his love. If his call was to go and support his country, I needed to be a supportive wife for that."
Ross and her three children celebrated as usual, putting up a Christmas tree and gathering with other families in the unit.
"The magic of Christmas still goes on--whether Daddy's here or not," Ross said.
Terri and other families in her readiness group recently made care packages for all the soldiers in her husband's company. She described the families in her group as doing "remarkably well," despite the fact that they are without someone special this holiday season.
"As the holiday approaches, you always think it's going to be a lot harder," Ross said. "But I haven't had too many negative phone calls."
All of the soldiers in her husband's company are currently deployed, except for those with medical reasons.
Both Terri and Ross emphasized that although the majority of civilian spouses are women, men also play an important role in the readiness group support system.
"It's definitely not a drawback having [men] as part of our group," Ross said. "They deserve to have just as much support and accurate information as a woman would."
In addition to serving as resources for spouses, the groups reach out to unmarried soldiers who are often far from family and may not have the resources to get home for the holidays.
Fort Bragg spokesperson Maria Taylor would not comment on where the majority of Fort Bragg soldiers are currently deployed.
"Fort Bragg has units deployed all the time to Bosnia and Kosovo. Units could be gone at any time, regardless of what's going on currently," she said. "But there may be a feeling that because Fort Bragg is always ready to respond, that call could come."
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