The Desert Fax: A Research Note on Calling Home from Somalia

Survey data from near 500 civilian wives of soldiers from who deployed to Somalia for Operation Restore Hope were analyzed to determine how the mechanics of soldier-family communications affected spouse adaptation to the stresses of the deployment.

Difficulty communicating with the soldier (particularly "connecting for the first time") was one of the most frequent problems that spouses experienced. This difficulty was more strongly related to the characteristics of the soldiers' units (i.e., type and location within Somalia) than to the characteristics of the soldiers themselves. Problems communicating during the deployment not only predicted the level of spouse stress during the deployment, but also affected either directly or through "spouse stress" several outcomes that are important to Army planners. Those outcomes included: (1) spouse support for the soldier remaining in the Army, (2) the soldiers reenlistment intention, (3) spouse support for peacekeeping missions, and (4) family adaptation to Army life.