WASHINGTON — Six months after the United States entered its war with Iran, the families of the troops fighting it say the emotional and financial toll is compounding, with little sign of relief.
A Blue Star Families poll of roughly 200 active-duty military households in early March found that 81% reported elevated stress tied to the conflict, a share advocates say has likely climbed since, as the fighting has dragged through cycles of escalation, shuttle diplomacy and failed peace talks.
“It’s like being on pins and needles all of the time,” said Courtney Sanders, who leads the Chicagoland chapter of Blue Star Families, the nation’s largest nonprofit serving military households. Sanders, whose own daughters serve in the Navy, said families describe a “roller coaster of emotions” — brief relief followed by fresh shocks. “The moment that you feel you’re able to take a breath, you get gut-punched again,” she said.
The human cost has been steep. Eighteen U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 750 wounded, out of more than 50,000 troops stationed across the region alongside thousands of additional Marines and sailors deployed to support the war effort.
The strain extends beyond the battlefield. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has now gone more than 200 days without a port call, a modern record for a U.S. carrier deployment, and sailors aboard have reported rising incidents of suicide attempts and declining morale, according to family members and advocacy groups tracking the deployment.
For National Guard families, the war has meant an abrupt loss of civilian income as citizen-soldiers are activated for federal duty, on top of the separation anxiety, school logistics and solo parenting that come with any deployment.
“My kids are in therapy,” said Shannon, an Army spouse who said she has started tuning out news coverage of the war to cope. Like many military spouses, she described the unpredictability — not knowing whether the next headline will bring a ceasefire or an escalation — as harder to manage than a traditional, fixed deployment.
Blue Star Families said it has expanded its response as the war has continued, standing up online resource hubs, hosting webinars and in-person meetups, and pairing spouses going through a first deployment with those who have been through one before.
There is no public timetable for when the conflict might end. For now, Sanders said, families are left managing one uncertain day at a time.
VIRA Broadcasting Staff, with wire reports.