(An all-volunteer military means that the vast majority of Americans will never experience the gut-wrenching act of sending a loved one off to war, or the joy and stress of welcoming him or her home. As a military wife and journalist who has reported from Iraq, Henderson has the empathy and expertise to illuminate the unseen aspects of this critical American story. "While They're at War" centers on two very different women, Marissa Boots and Beth Pratt, as both experience intense indoctrination into life alone at Fort Bragg, South Carolina, while their husbands are fighting in Iraq. Extraordinary scenes from the lives of these women and others reveal the overwhelming effects of anticipatory grief, strongly enforced mores concerning infidelity, feelings of alienation from nondeployed military and the rest of the world, the effects of e-mail/cellphone/CNN culture, and much more.

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