Home Fires Burning: Married to the Military for Better or Worse

The daughter of an Air Force pilot makes a serious inquiry into the problems and pleasures of being a soldier's wife. Journalist Houppert's memories of her own military "insider" status and her keen reporter's eye combine to offer a nuanced portrait of the lives of a handful of women living near New York State's Fort Drum. Lauren can't believe that "the love of her life... had been lying in Afghanistan with a bullet from an AK-47 in his head while she had been shampooing the carpet"; Heather's husband lost an arm in Iraq and suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome; Crystal supports her husband's decision to go into the Special Forces, but can't help feeling abandoned. In cool, objective prose, Houppert shows the military community's strengths (it rallies around its own) and its weaknesses (there is, in military terms, a "spousal aggression issue"). Wives host potlucks and fund-raisers; some agitate for better housing; a few even participate in the antiwar movement. Indeed, old guard aside, it's harder to be a "true believer" these days, Houppert says. Blind loyalty is no longer the answer, she argues, and military problems—from low morale and domestic violence to the abuse at Abu Ghraib—suggest an institution "out of step with American values." Houppert may not offer much in the way of solutions, but she raises important questions. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. (Mar.)