Military wife/mother fights her own special battle

Being in the Guard has brought steady work and good benefits. The benefits cover 80 percent of the kids' special needs. Supplemental insurance covers the rest. Lisa did try once to get respite care through TRICARE but chucked the effort because of the paperwork. The services at Fort Dix, in New Jersey, are too far away, though that may change. When Joe returns, he could be assigned to Fort Dix and the family would leave Philadelphia to live on base.

Military medical benefits fall short or are too hard to tap for many other families. TRICARE and a special program within it for serious health conditions do not cover the full cost of many treatments. Plus, some coverage ends when the service member retires.

Efforts exist on Capitol Hill to expand TRICARE coverage of treatment for disabled children. Among the leading advocates are Pennsylvania Democrats Rep. Joe Sestak and Sen. Arlen Specter.

But the toughest obstacle for military families in getting all the coverage their special-needs children need may be a pillar of military life: the reassignment.

A constellation of education, social, and health services often surrounds special-needs children. That constellation needs to be reestablished whenever service members and their families move to a new base.

Lisa and Joe don't talk about his service or the war in Iraq - they have differing opinions that don't need to be rehashed. Lisa dresses the house in red, white and blue and proudly tells the kids their daddy is a hero. She just wishes the military hadn't deployed the father of three special-needs kids.

The workers have left by 4 p.m. and reward time has arrived. Everyone dons their swimsuits and piles into the minivan for the short trip to the Fox Chase Swim Club.

All of the kids except Shawn go in the pool immediately. Lisa sits on a chaise and talks to Emily Fauser, 41, a mother of two and a pal she made this summer at the club. She and Emily, who has friends in the military, hit it off right away.

Lisa is enjoying the chitchat with an adult, the sun, the prospect of Joe's return. Then, she pulls off her cover-up and takes a running leap into the pool.

"I give her credit," Fauser says. "I don't know how she does it."

Contact staff writer writer Carolyn Davis at 215-854-4214 or cdavis@phillynews.com.