Issue Date: January 29, 2006

Books

Army wives

A journalist explores the toll military life takes on families.

In 2002, during a six-week period, four soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., killed their wives, and an officer's wife was charged with killing her husband. Local reporter Tanya Biank, an Army brat who has since married an Army major, covered the murders. Her book, "Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives," out next week, follows the lives of four military wives from pre-9/11 to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We spoke with her:

The book talks a lot about the particular pressures Army wives face. What are they?
With the war on terror, the rules are changing as far as what Army families are facing, especially involving the frequency and length of deployments. It can put a strain on relationships.

Yet you also make it clear that when it comes to serious marital problems, soldiers and their wives rarely seek help.
That is embedded in Army culture and will not change. It's part of the unwritten code: You have to put on a brave front. There are a ton of counseling programs, but people are not [necessarily] going to come forward.

Several soldiers accused of murdering their spouses that you wrote about in your book had been deployed for long periods. How does the Army now handle a soldier's transition from war zone to home life?
When soldiers [returned home] in the past, they had two weeks of leave. Now they have a transitional 10-day period of light duty. They'll turn in their equipment, have normal hours. It's been good because it eases them back into being with their families. -- Lewis Beale