Woman helps spouses cope with deployments

By JAKE LOWARY • The Leaf-Chronicle • January 4, 2009

Having experience as a military spouse allowed Melissa Dixon to help other military spouses in her hometown.

Dixon, the wife of 101st Combat Aviation Brigade soldier Max Dixon, started a support group for other spouses in her hometown of Vanceburg, Ky.

Dixon said there were several other spouses of reservists in her hometown that were not accustomed to being away from loved ones for an extended period.

"They really don't have the network there," she said.

Dixon returned to Kentucky while her husband was deployed for a year with the 101st CAB, and welcomed him home Saturday along with 44 other soldiers returning from Afghanistan.

Having become used to deployments, Dixon said other spouses leaned on her for advice, some of which was as simple as recommending families use a web cam to keep in touch. She and the other spouses also sent more than a dozen care packages to deployed soldiers.

"It was pretty cool (helping other spouses)," she said.

For her efforts, the support group received a commendation award from the Army.

The soldiers on Saturday's flight were in transit to Fort Campbell for nearly a week, which, though the wait was worth it, wore on some of the families.

Diana Taylor drove 22 hours from Houston to welcome home her husband, Spc. Jerome Taylor.

Diana Taylor had a passenger - her 7-week-old daughter, Anaid Reign - who met her father for the first time Saturday.

She's so tiny," Taylor said, holding his young daughter.

Anaid was awake and smiling when she met her father, but her mom said the trip to Fort Campbell wasn't the easiest.

"The last 200 miles, it was, 'Oh my gosh,'" she said of her trek to Fort Campbell, which ended at about 4 a.m. Tuesday.

"I had to stop like every 30 minutes," she said.

The last six months that her husband was away were tough, Diana Taylor said.

Hurricane Ike - which passed over Houston, knocking out power for two weeks in September's sweltering heat - wasn't the hardest part.

"Doing everything myself was the hardest part," she said.

According Fort Campbell, a total of 10,800 soldiers are deployed to the Middle East. About 2,000 are in Iraq and another 8,800 are in Afghanistan.

The division headquarters, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 159th CAB and 101st Sustainment Brigade are in Afghanistan and other smaller units are in Iraq.

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