April is the Month of the Military Child. Make time to celebrate their resilience.
Since 1986, April has been designated as the Month of the Military Child by the United States Department of Defense. This is a legacy of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger as a time to applaud military children and the daily sacrifices they make and the challenges that they overcome. These children are often overlooked, but they play a vital role in supporting our military and their contributions should be celebrated.
The Court system intersects with every segment of the population and military families are not excluded. Military children come into Juvenile and Family Courts in times of celebration like adoptions; times of stress like their parents divorcing; times of poor decision making like juvenile offender court; and, unfortunately, times of danger like being neglected and/or abused.
Their cases take on unique challenges since many times their support system other than their parents may be several states away or in multiple states. In addition, the children tend to move often from duty station to duty station with their parents uprooting their home, school and friends. This can be a daunting experience for any child, but military children must do it repeatedly. Moreover, they have to deal with one or more of their parents being in training or deployed for long periods of time—many times to a war zone.
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Despite these challenges, military children are an important part of our military and civilian communities. They provide support and stability to their parents and siblings, and they often become leaders within their peer groups. They learn to be self-reliant and independent—skills that will serve them well throughout their lives.
These resilient children deserve recognition year-round, not just one month of the year. Right now there are roughly 1.7 million dependent military children across all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. About 1 million of these children are children of active duty servicemembers. The remaining 700,000 dependent military children are children of guard or reserve units. Over 650,000 of these military children are ages 5 or under.
The month of the military child is an opportunity to honor and celebrate these incredible children. It is a time to recognize their sacrifices and to raise awareness of the unique challenges that they face.
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In honor of these military children, I would urge you to participate in Month of Military Child events.
In addition, if you know of a military family, do something for their children to thank these young heroes for their sacrifice for our country. I would also encourage you and your family to wear purple ribbons all of April to signify your support for our military children.
As a country, a state and a community, we owe all our military families gratitude and support for what they do to defend our country and secure our freedoms. Join me in honoring them this April. Together we can make show these young people our thanks for their unique contributions and sacrifices made on behalf of our country.
Jason Shea Fleming is a Family Court Judge in Christian County which is home of Fort Campbell. He has served as a Family Court Judge since 2007.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: April is the Month of the Military Child. Celebrate their resilience.
