The Wilkinson family and Flanigan family interviewed in “Coping with Fear and Uncertainty” dealt with the fear and uncertainty of military deployments differently. The Wilkinson’s prepared for the realities of deployments by talking about the risks they faced. For example, they accepted that the husband would be deployed and the deployment would put him in danger. They did not focus on the danger. Instead, they planned for their ‘worst case scenario’: What if Mr. Wilkinson’s deployment was extended? That the Wilkinson’s openly discussed the possible risks and planned ahead for possible outcomes shows that they dealt externally with both their fears and uncertainties.
Betsy Flanigan, whose husband was deployed to Vietnam for the third time (the first time during their marriage), used several strategies for dealing with the fear and uncertainty of deployment. She and their baby moved in with her parents, so she had a solid support system in the house. Additionally, she connected with wives of other deployed husbands, so she had additional support from them. She also used avoidant behavior. In the moment she believes the man in uniform had come to tell her that her husband has been killed, she flees to her bedroom and hides. As she says, “That’s how strange you get when you think you’re going to get really bad news. It was running away.” The immediate and extended support system Besty set up for herself and child shows that she had external strategies, however her avoidant behavior suggest that, in a crisis, she turned initallly inward, to internal, avoidant strategies to deal with her fears and uncertainty.
Both the Wilkinson and the Flanigan families would benefit from enhanced external support systems. For example, Kristin Wilkinson, made no mention of an extended support system such as belonging to a community of wives of deployed husbands. Besty Flanigan would benefit from therapeutic group or individual counseling to learn new behaviors to more successfully deal with the possibility that her husband could be physically wounded, killed, or return from deployment with PTSD or other emotional/mental injuries.
References
Coping with Fear & Uncertainty. Laureate Education, Inc. 2014 Transcript.
