Spouse Education Assistance Program (SEAP-Overseas)

The Overseas Spouse Education Assistance Program (OSEAP) provides Army spouses residing with active duty Soldiers at an Overseas Command with need-based financial assistance for pursuing educational goals. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are not accepted for OSEAP. The purpose of the program is to assist spouses in gaining the education required to allow them to qualify for increased occupational opportunities and is for first undergraduate degree only. The OSEAP does not provide assistance for any type of graduate degree level courses.

Army Emergency Relief will be consolidating the Overseas & Stateside Spouse Education Assistance Programs effective with Academic Year (AY) 2012-2013. The Overseas Program is in its last academic year for 2011-2012.

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Reunion

The return home from combat can often leave servicemembers feeling out of place with the most important people in their lives - their families.

"In deployment, Soldiers grow accustomed to a new lifestyle and a new 'family' - those buddies that bond together to defend each other," said Maj. Ken Williams, 14th Military Police Brigade chaplain. "This lifestyle change is prolonged and becomes familiar, i.e., the new normal."

The families also change while the Soldier is deployed.

"The family is a system," Williams said. "When one family member is absent, the whole system changes. All members of the family adapt to a new 'normal' way of life."

When the servicemember returns, the family may feel uncomfortable with each other, and the servicemember may withdraw from the family.