Ft. Campbell Suppport

 

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Ft. Campbell, Ky.

 

Video Transcript

Chuck Denney (UT Institute of Agriculture)
Fort Campbell is home base for the proud 101st Airborne’s Screaming Eagles. Here a war now in year five has brought about multiple deployments. Some of the 22-thousand soldiers currently deployed are fighting overseas for the third, fourth, even fifth time.

Jessica Leonard (UT Extension)
“Our patriotism is a little on the up-and-up because we are frustrated with the war, but we love what our husbands do.”

Chuck Denney
Jessica Leonard’s husband Lance is a Captain with the Screaming Eagles Third Brigade Cavalry Unit.  He’s back in Iraq - his third overseas deployment since 2002.

Jessica Leonard
“Everyday I’m reminded that he’s gone or someone else is gone or you hear on the news that so many were killed or this bomb exploded.”

Chuck Denney
Jessica is a military wife, and a UT Extension employee from across the border in Montgomery County, Tennessee. She’s one of 22 Extension people working at Fort Campbell, and Jessica is in the AFTB - or Army Family Team Building program. Here she passes out information at a base deployment fair. The fundamental goal here is to help military families while their loved ones are deployed - starting first with simple emotional support.

Jessica Leonard
“For me the trick is that gap. That gap of feeling alone, feeling that you don’t belong to anyone in this big military world.”      

Chuck Denney
It’s a sad fact that many military families struggle financially as they serve our country. When you combine financial stress with the everyday concern of having a loved one deployed, it can make it tough to carry on here at home. The program also focuses on household budgeting, and how to increase cash flow. Almost no one gets rich from military service, so watching every dollar is critical.

John Bartee (UT Extension-Montgomery County)
“They assist them with knowing where to locate services, how to manage their money. Then in other areas we have people who teach spouses how to interview, how to dress, write a resume and help them find employment in the community.”

Chuck Denney
Another key element to the financial side of the program is debt reduction.

Jessica Leonard
“Hey, I’d like to pay off my credit card bills this deployment. You can sit down with a counselor for free and hopefully in that year or fifteen months have that goal set aside.”

Chuck Denney
Other areas in the program include relocation efforts, teaching leadership skills and bereavement services. The war may not affect all of us personally, but at Fort Campbell its emotional strain is part of every day life. When the stress becomes overwhelmingly for military families, the least we can do is support them while their loved ones offer us their protection.

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NOTE: UT Extension’s Fort Campbell program is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.