Abstract
Mothers of the Military: Support and Politics during Wartime illuminates perspectives of mothers whose sons have enlisted in the U.S. military during the current “War on Terrorism.” In this ethnography, Wendy Christensen explains how important mothers are to the country’s war efforts. Beyond being suppliers of young men for war, mothers are also maternal, providing physical, emotional, and moral support to their military sons. Although the author interviewed seven mothers of female enlistees, this book is primarily about mothers and their enlisted sons. The author avows that most military recruitment materials focus on sons and infrequently include daughters. A central theme of the book is that mothers are controlled and dependent on the military when their sons are recruited and deployed, but they prove to be capable of mobilizing to challenge military policies when their adult children do not receive the healthcare they deserve as veterans.
The book is separated into three parts: recruitment, deployment, and post-deployment health care. Each section contains a detailed discussion of how military moms navigate the day-to-day realities of their sons’ military service. The author waits until the end of the book, in the Appendix, to discuss her data and methods. It’s only then that the reader learns that the study is based on an analysis of recruitment documents, two and a half years of monitored message board discussions (June 2006 to January 2009), and interviews with 70 mothers, (20 of whom were taking care of injured service members post-deployment). The data also consist of 50 white, twelve African American, and eight Latina mothers. Children of the mothers in the study served in the Army, Marine Corps, National Guard, and Navy.
According to the author, a mother’s approval is critical in a new recruit’s decision to join the military, as well as in keeping his morale uplifted after he has joined. Citing from demographic research on new enlistees as well as studies of adolescence, Christensen shows that today’s young people transition to adulthood later in life than did their predecessors. Therefore, new enlistees depend on their parents’ involvement in major decision-making such as joining the military. A premise of the book is that there is a gender difference in parenting: mothers are emotional and fathers are pragmatic. New enlistees, so argues the author, look to their mothers (more so than their fathers) for approval to join the military. The author goes on to show that mothers are solicited by the military to support troops and to provide unconditional support for the military mission during the recruitment and deployment phases of their sons’ service. Christensen claims that this so-called bargaining with the military is a three-step process: (i) Mothers are convinced that their children will benefit from service by way of education, training, and career; (ii) Mothers see their sons grow into men; (iii) Mothers are made to feel that they too are part of the military.
The author explains that in order to win the support of mothers, military recruiters emphasize non-war aspects of service such as pay, health care, money for education, and post-military career training opportunities. In recruitment materials, military service is described as being similar to college. Recruiters also frame military service as being better than civilian employment in that it includes on-the-job training and world-wide travel opportunities. During the recruitment phase, focus is taken off the dangers of war and off the fact that “military service means using weapons and killing people, or being wounded or killed.” Instead, military service is depicted by recruiters as being a safe job. The military connects mothers’ support for troops to unconditional political support for the war. Mothers are expected not to question the war; and while their sons are deployed, they do not.
The author also suggests that the military targets poor African American families headed by single women. She claims that only African American single mothers are portrayed in military advertisements as needing a co-parent in place of an absent husband. The military makes a concerted effort to recruit from the deprived African American community, promising discipline and guidance to the sons of single mothers. For the author, this helps to explain why African Americans are disproportionately represented in the military and consequently bear a disproportionate responsibility for national defense.
After their adult children enlist, it is important for mothers to form support networks with other military mothers, as there exists a division between them and mothers of sons and daughters who never served. The author explains that, unlike military mothers, civilian mothers often do not understand what it means to have a child in harm’s way, at risk of being injured or killed in war. Therefore military mothers connect with other military mothers in an effort to cope with the stress of having a child deployed. Indeed, these mothers seek online groups for validation of what they experience when their nearly adult child goes off to war. These mothers provide both physical and moral support for each other and for service members. The connection is often made through online communities like Semper Fi, Mom2Mom, Proud Army Moms, and many others. However, as Christensen discusses, in order for mothers to participate in online support groups, they must adhere to the rule of not criticizing the war effort. Moderators of discussion boards police and decide what will and will not be posted.
In the final section of the book, the author discusses mothers of service members who return home with physical and mental injuries. These mothers who supported the war and remained silent about their political views while their children were deployed become politically active when they perceive the Veterans Administration (VA) neglecting the needs of service members when they return home. Many service members deploy multiple times and return home with depression, anxiety, and PTSD. The suicide rates for military veterans are greater than the national average. The mothers in this study often find healthcare at the VA to be less than adequate. These mothers feel that when their sons and daughters come home, the military support structure is gone. They feel that the VA is not fulfilling their side of the bargain. Christensen states that when service members return home with physical and mental injuries, military moms are often their caregivers. These mothers who had once become militarized and supported the war effort now become mobilized against the war.
Christensen does an excellent job of explaining why mothers feel they must silence their political views about the war when their sons deploy. Similarly, mothers’ perception of abandonment when military troops return home injured is well articulated in the book. The author’s analysis that African American families are assumed to be deficient and are encouraged to prove their family’s worth through the military service of their children is compelling.
However, a limitation of the book is that there is very little discussion about women in the military even though women are a growing segment of the military population. Given the focus of the study, some discussion about gender differences in parent-child relationships between daughters and sons who serve in the military seems warranted. The author did not include information about enlistees in the Air Force; if she had, she might have gained more data on the recruitment and deployment of service women. Nonetheless, this interesting book about the relationship between mothers and the military during wartime contributes greatly to the literature on military families.