“Saying Goodbye Never Got Easier”: A Spouse’s Reflections On Military Families’ Service To The Nation

Mary Hanson grew up in a military family. Her father served in World War II, and then became an Air Force Chaplain. She attended Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, where she met Jim while he was in flight school. She later attended the University of Georgia, where she pursued a nursing degree. During Jim’s deployment in 1971, she moved in with his parents. When he returned she helped her husband cope with malaria and Post Traumatic Stress, having had to deal with her father’s alcoholism earlier in her life. In this interview, she talks about growing up in a military family, and continuing that lifestyle as an Army spouse and as the mother of another Army spouse. She discusses the un-recognized Post Traumatic Stress that Army wives experience. She concludes by stating that military spouses give their lives in service to the nation.