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This report is the result of an effort led by the National Security Staff and Domestic Policy Council responding to the Presidential Study Directive-9 calling on all Cabinet Secretaries and other agency heads to find better ways to provide our military families with the support they deserve.

A comprehensive guide to the lives and experiences of military service members, veterans, and their families in the United States today, with special emphasis given to those of the post-9/11 era. This reference work provides detailed information on the issues U.S. service members face both stateside and during deployments overseas. Issues covered include relations with family; substance use; housing; educational and job training opportunities; post-traumatic stress disorder and other health issues; and experiences of women, sexual minorities, and ethnic/racial minorities in the armed service.

Voices of America: Veterans and Military Families Tell Their Own Stories collects dozens of personal accounts of military life from World War II to the present day. These narratives from Texas Christian University students, faculty, staff, alumni, and family range from deadly combat to downtime, from family dynamics to life after military service. Although the contributors share a connection with TCU and each experience is unique, they share a common bond with all Americans who have served their country across far-flung zones of conflict and decades of history, and speak with urgent relevance to American society today.

War-related separations challenge families in many ways. The worry and uncertainty associated with combat deployments provokes anxiety in family members left at home. Lengthy separations may challenge the personal, social, and economic coping resources of families at home. In this war, thanks to medical advances, many service members who previously would have died of their injuries are returning home to live long, although altered lives. As a result, families are facing the additional challenge of assisting service members who have experienced amputation, traumatic brain injury, and psychological wounds.

Brings to life the authentic, vivid stories of leadership from inspiring and adventurous women who achieved the extraordinary by serving their country in the U.S. military. These women shattered the glass ceiling and performed extraordinary feats by refusing to take "no" for an answer and learning how to lead in traditionally male-dominated environments. LaGuardia-Kotite skillfully captures their leadership lessons, struggles, and successes--showing how courageous and tenacious women can achieve their goals and help change policy, insights also applicable to today's leaders in corporate and business boardrooms.

Leaders around the globe have long turned to the armed forces as a "school for the nation." Debates over who serves continue to arouse passion today because the military's participation policies are seen as shaping politics beyond the military, specifically the politics of identity and citizenship. Yet how and when do these policies transform patterns of citizenship? Krebs argues that military service can play a critical role in bolstering minorities' efforts to grasp full and unfettered rights.

Using data compiled from longitudinal studies of World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans, contributors to this groundbreaking book examine the effects of military service across the lifespan. The US spends over 100 billion dollars annually on healthcare for more than 30 million active military and veterans. The prevalence of negative trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among military veterans is well-known. But other more subtle effects of military service--particularly on health and well-being in later life--are less well-understood, among researchers as well as medical and mental health professionals who care for veterans.

How does growing up in a military family affect the educational experiences of children and youth? What can K-12 school practitioners do to support these students' academic, behavioral, and social-emotional success? This book describes effective ways to help students and their families navigate such challenges as relocation, school transitions, and parental deployment. Fenning presents strengths-based assessment, intervention, and prevention strategies that reflect deep knowledge of military culture and fit perfectly within a schoolwide multi-tiered system of support.

"When I became secretary of defense," Ashton B. Carter said when announcing that the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women, "I made a commitment to building America's force of the future. In the twenty-first century, that requires drawing strength from the broadest possible pool of talent." That "pool of talent"--and how our nation's civilian and military leaders have tried to fill it--is what Military Service and American Democracy is all about. William Taylor chronicles and analyzes the long and ever-changing history of that often contentious and controversial effort, from the initiation of America's first peacetime draft just before our entry into World War II up to present-day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As the U.S. military moves into an uncertain future dominated by rapid change, traditional modes of thought will no longer suffice. Contributors to this volume focus on some of the major factors that will shape the American military in the 1980s: a complex, interdependent international arena, a changing domestic political context, broad societal forces and trends, the imperatives of advanced technology, conflicting bureaucratic and management orientations, and the emergence of new elites. The articles collected here present the diverse views of civilian scholars, of all services and ranks of the military, and of Department of Defense and congressional civilians.