Yes, military duty takes a toll on families, too; it can even be hard on the kids. Again, I have no problem with articles like this, I even think they're a good thing as they serve to introduce many Americans to the depth of sacrifice that our military folks make on our behalf. What galls is that since so many in the press are just now discovering the military they don't seem to get that these sacrifices did not begin with this war and will not end with it, and that part of the story is just missing from all these press accounts.
We have thousands of personnel serving in Korea. Most aren't supposed to bring their families and they deploy for a year -- year in, year out, for fifty years. Thousands are in the Balkans, no families there. Those haven't been "hot" wars for awhile, but most of the problems mentioned in this article -- kids left with other family members, important milestones missed, understandable increases in disciplinary problems -- go with those kinds of deployments. During the '90s we had troops in shooting wars all over the world. Do you think kids responded any differently during Desert Storm, or Haiti, or Kosovo?
I'm glad the press is starting to see with our military really does go through to protect us. And what their families go through as well. But please, make clear that these sacrifices are not just a function of this particular war (even if things have accelerated because of the stress of the current situation, the stakes of the War on Terror) but of the military life and what that means. No one stays in the military for any length of time and achieves any kind of rank without some lengthy deployments: it can't be done.