Fort Bragg couples get marital support

Raquel Enero

All marriages have ups and downs, but military families are under pressure that requires unique attention. That is the message Chris Faris, an Army command sergeant major, and his wife, Lisa, spread to couples at Fort Bragg recently, according to the Fayetteville Observer.

The couple, who has been married for 22 years, has seen its fair share of relationship stress. Faris has spent much of his career in the military's most secretive unit that is deployed constantly, leaving his wife at home alone.

"I started to really resent what he was doing and resent him and kind of lost myself in the whole mission and felt alone," Lisa Faris said at Fort Bragg recently. "I felt I was the only one going through that. My story in all of this is I don't want people to feel like they are alone."

Lisa and Chris are both trying to encourage military couples to seek the help they need to get through tough times.

"When it comes to our family relationships, don't fool yourself that 10 years of a cycle of 'deploy, redeploy, refit, train for deployment and deploy' doesn't have an effect on those relations," Chris Faris said at the event. "We need to recognize that after a decade of war, we can probably fight it smarter. We need to take those lessons learned and develop proactive programs that can help our families."

The Farises have a noble cause, but despite the enormous challenges military families face, the divorce rates remain low, according to Stars and Stripes. A study in the Journal of Family Issues earlier this year found that the divorce rate for military members was about 3.7 percent, whereas the civilian divorce rate is about 50 percent.

Still, the couple encourages others like them to seek help through counseling when they need it.

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