Piece Comment

Review of Mothers in Uniform


MOTHERS IN UNIFORM
3 Stars

Military moms in harm?s way is the subject of this feature-length segment from Eric Whitney.
Of KRCC. When the segment was made,over 500 moms were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe now there are more. This important, still underdiscussed subject deserves our attention.

Obstacles to the telling include distance and access. The two main voices are both in Iraq ? one comes to us by a very cranky satellite phone. That?s mentioned twice in the short piece. But it doesn?t make up for the distance the poor transmission puts between Sergeant Amy he audience.

A vigilant listener will hear two interesting and probably representative stories. One?s about Lisa King. Lisa enlisted while pregnant ? she has a one-year-old and a husband back at home. The other is about a 30-year-old single-mom sergeant who loves being a soldier. She?s left her twins with her mom.

Both talk about the guilt, both talk about the excitement and the risk: in these latest wars, females pull guard duty and other tasks that put them in harm?s way. The poor tape quality keeps what we hear brief ? unfortunate, given the subject.

This segment could kick off a longer talk show on the issue of ?War and the Homefront? or ?Women and War.? It might also be a nice segment to plug into one of the network?s daily news magazines on or near Veteran?s day. Finally, it has valuable background for someone developing a similar show or segment.

Anthea Raymond
PRX Editorial Board
Los Angeles
October 22, 2006