For many women, returning home from war means a new challenge: being moms again
Army veteran Teri Jackson of Austin said she needed a year and half before she could start to decompress. During that time, sons Dakota Broussard-Blount, 13, left, and David Small, 16, 'were walking on pins and needles,' she said.
Teri Jackson, a single mother who grew up in Southwest Austin , deployed to Iraq in March 2004, leaving behind her sons, then 11 and 8 years old. As soon as she got to the barren trailer in Balad that would serve as her living quarters for the next year, she decorated it with photos of her children and cheery memories of home.
A few days later, Jackson, 40, a U.S. Army truck driver, went on her first mission, hauling supplies to a distant base. Suddenly, her partner, who was driving at the time, slammed on the brakes, sending Jackson hurtling into the windshield. The move probably saved her life as a mortar round flew past the truck.
When she returned to her trailer, Jackson took down the photos from the walls.
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More than 212,000 women have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 11 percent of the total deployed military force. Forty percent of active-duty women have children. And more than 30,000 single mothers have been deployed to the war zone, according to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Report Continues
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