Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Women at War

Recently in Afghanistan the Marines launched what they call the "Female Engagement Team." Women Marines don head scarfs and body armor and talk with Afghani women in the villages, who won't talk to men. They're getting important information this way. As the conflict in Afghanistan escalates more women are being deployed. Many are mothers. A new study suggests when mothers deploy, it takes a toll on the children they’re forced to leave behind. I'm Sarah McConnell and today on With Good Reason, we talk about mothers going off to war.

Later on today's program, women reporters in VietNam.

But first, Mona Ternus is a nurse and Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, who deployed to Bosnia and Tunisia in the 1990's. In 2003, she was deployed again—even though she had a teenage daughter, and her husband was already serving in Iraq. Since then, as an Assistant Dean and medical researcher at George Mason University, she's surveyed mothers who were sent to war who have adolescent children. She was surprised at how profound the effects of deployment were on especially the teenage children.

Mona Ternus Interview

Mona Ternus is a Lieutenant-Colonel in the US Air Force reserve and the commander of the 911th Aeronautical Staging Squadron. She's also a professor and Assistant Dean at George mason University's College of Health and Human Services.

Coming up next, women journalists who covered the Vietnam war.

The Vietnam War was the first oversees conflict that women reporters covered in sizable numbers, but in the many history books written about Viet Nam war correspondents, little mention is made of the women reporters. Our next guest, Joyce Hoffman, is a professor of Journalism at Old Dominion University, and has interviewed over a hundred Vietnam reporters for her book: “On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam.”

(Joyce Hoffman interview)

Joyce Hoffman is a professor of Journalism at Old Dominion University and the author of “On their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam”.

You’re listening to With Good Reason. Elliot Majerczyk and Jesse Dukes are our associate producers. Andrew Wyndham is our executive producer. Nancy King creates our feature capsules. Jeannie Palin handles listener services and Lydia Wilson is our publicity coordinator. We had help this week from Margot Kelly of WAMU and Perry Smith of WHRV. With Good Reason is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. For a free copy of this show on CD, call 877-451-5098. I'm Sarah McConnell, Thanks for listening.