Click here for a  photo of Kristin Henderson.

While They're at War:
Kristin Henderson Shares Her True Stories of American Families on the Homefront On UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwatch,
Friday, July 28, at 9:30 PM and Sunday, July 30, at 5 PM

There is a war story most Americans never hear-the story of what life is like for the men and women married not only those in the armed services, but who are also married to the military when their loved one is deployed.  Most have seen the tearful goodbyes and the joyful homecomings occasionally caught on camera, but the rest of the homefront experience has been hidden behind closed doors, until now.  In While They're at War: The True Story of American Families on the Homefront, author Kristin Henderson exposes the often-difficult aspects of military culture on and off America's bases.

In this episode of UNC-TV's local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, airing Friday, July 28, at 9:30 PM, Henderson, a military wife herself, reveals her new bookfocusing on two very different women at Fort Bragg who are facing their husbands' first deployments.

"North Carolina has been home to me for most of my adult life.and Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg are really the two hubs of deployment on the East Coast, so it seemed the natural place to tell this story," says Henderson. "I thought I knew everything I needed to know in order to write this book before I started it-I'd been through two wartime deployments with my husband-and what I discovered is that there was so much that I didn't know."

Henderson shares discoveries from the lives of military wives and illuminates the overwhelming costs of being married to the military: anticipatory grief; strongly enforced rules concerning infidelity; isolation and alienation from non-deployed military officers and the civilian world; the effects of e-mail, cell phone, and CNN culture; homecoming violence; and much more.

"When my husband joined the military eight years ago, I was the most civilian of civilian spouses and I knew absolutely nothing about the military. I was supportive of his desire to serve, but I thought that it was his job and it didn't really affect me," admits Henderson. "What I found, particularly when he began deploying to war zones, is that I certainly does affect me. The military controls his life in a way that is unmatched by any other institution in American civilization and by extension affects me as well in way I wasn't expecting at all. So, I pretty quickly learned that knowledge is power, and I needed more of it."

The author also discusses her powerful chapters on casualty notification, the complexity of reunions after deployment, and the understandable connection of military families.

"The nice thing about being with other [military spouses] is that they knew what you were going through without you having to explain it," says Henderson. "In fact, my sister, whom I stayed with off and on throughout my husband's deployment that would have known if anything was going on inside of me as she had a front row seat, after reading the book said, 'Kristin, I had no idea.'"

Don't miss D.G. Martin's all-new interview with Kristin Henderson on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 28, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airingSunday, July 30, at 5 PM,only on UNC-TV!

During this season of North Carolina Bookwatch, guests also include: Will Blythe (To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever, July 7), John Hart (TheKing of Lies, July 14), Sarah Dessen (Just Listen, July 21), David Payne (Back to Wando Passo, August 4), John Hope Franklin (Mirror to America, August 11), Leah Stewart (The Myth of You and Me, August 18), Andrew Britton (The American, August 25), Allan Gurganus (New Stories from the South, Sept. 1), Tom Carlson (Hatteras Blues, Sept. 8), Bill Smith (Seasoned in the South, Sept. 15), William Leuchtenburg (The White House Looks South, Sept. 22), Dot Jackson (Refuge, Sept. 29), Art Chansky (Blue Blood, Oct. 6), Mark Ethridge (Grievances, Oct. 13),  Paul Leonard (Music of a Thousand Hammers, Oct. 20), and Angela Davis-Gardner (Plum Wine, October 27).

For more information about additional series guests and airdates, plus, the all-new Bookwatch blog and online book club, please visit: www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh's independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV's ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV's other local productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.

-UNC-TV-