Your Soldier, Your Army: A Parents' Guide

Your Soldier, Your Army: A Parents' Guide

Army wife and mother Vicki Cody has written a 64-page book to help parents of soldiers have a better understanding of life in the military.

Cody, wife of Gen. Richard Cody, Army vice chief of staff, and mother of two Army captains, authored “Your Soldier, Your Army: A Parents’ Guide” that was published through the Association of the United States Army’s Institute of Land Warfare.

The publication is aimed at soldiers’ families and in-laws and covers a variety of topics from deciphering military acronyms to understanding what takes place during a deployment.

“I have an advantage of having been part of this system for the past 30 years,” Cody wrote in the preface. “Still, I know how scary it’s been for me having both sons in a combat zone, and I think about all the parents out there who don’t have that background. This must be very confusing and frightening for them.”

Her sons were deployed at one time to Iraq in the same unit, and the older went back soon after while the younger was preparing to deploy at the time she was writing the book.

“This is a stressful time to have a Soldier in your family,” she wrote. “It takes a lot of courage to be a parent of a Soldier and especially to send one off to combat.” Cody wrote that she hopes that by reading this book families can better cope with deployments and other aspects of military life.

Publication was made possible by a grant from Newell Rubbermaid, an AUSA sustaining member company. Copies are available while supplies last by calling AUSA at (800) 336-4570, Ext. 630, or sending an e-mail to ilwpublications@ausa.org.
Or you can download and view the book online on the AUSA web site.