When soldiers go off to war, many leave behind a spouse and a family.
One Boise couple has a story to share. As a matter of fact, they decided to put pen to paper, and write an entire book about it.
Military families will tell you all about the sacrifices of war: separation, loneliness, loss, and survival.
"I found myself in a foreign world and didn't have any idea what to expect from the service, or how the service affects families," said Kristine Schellhaas, co-author of "15 Years of War."
Kristine started volunteering and helping other military families who had been separated by war.
"A lot of people kept asking me 'When are you going to write a book?'" Schellhaas admitted.
The military wife and future author began thinking, how can she tell the story of her husband's four tours of duty? How can she write what his absence at home really meant?
"I basically locked him in the car and interrogated him from a move from California to Virginia so he couldn't get away from me," Schellhaas joked. "That way he didn't have a better place to be besides locked in a car with me."
If you're counting, four tours of duty meant 12 moves in just over 15 years. That's where the title of the book comes from: 15 Years of War. Keeping in touch with each other wasn't always easy.
"Communication, we take it for granted," said Ross Schellhaas."Even in those situations where you have a phone, internet service went down any time we had a casualty. All of the communication with the outside world was shut off.
Kristeen will never forget one of her last overseas phone calls with her husband.
"This last move he calls me from Iraq and says 'I'm done,'" Schellhaas said. "I said 'Ok, so you're telling me it's time to find a house?' and he said 'Yeah.'"
The Schellhaas' remind all families on this veterans day to support your local veteran's organization because families need to stick together.
