Growing Up in Armyville: Canada's Military Families During the Afghanistan Mission

Harrison and Albanese's groundbreaking work is a meticulous, accessible examination of a New Brunswick military town's home-front reactions to the deployment of troops in Canada's longest war, the occupation of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2011. This collaborative academic study is an engaging history that contextualizes the war while analyzing the often devastating effect of the soldiers' overseas deployment on their children and spouses. The book is bolstered by extensive, frequently heartbreaking firsthand stories of soldiers' adolescent children, who, in addition to typical teen-years stressors, must also deal with the effects of school transfers, new responsibilities as parent substitutes, and fears, anxieties and depression triggered by knowing a loved one is in a war zone. It also shows loved ones trying to deal with veterans' PTSD, catastrophic physical injuries, and other difficult readjustments after life in a combat zone. Out of the mouths of babes come remarkably perceptive insights that the study's authors clearly hope will be heard by policy makers who decide when to go to war. The book also documents recommendations on how to assist families in case of future military entanglements but concludes that the momentum generated by the study's findings when they were first publicized in 2011 has, unfortunately, led to little overall progress. (Oct.)