Reuters — Since the United States went to war with Iran six months ago, Courtney Sanders has been helping soldiers’ families fill the gaps left by their loved ones.

There are school pickups to coordinate, lost incomes to supplement — and the ever-present separation anxiety.

“It’s like being on pins and needles all of the time,” Sanders said.

She leads the Chicagoland chapter of Blue Star Families, the nation’s largest nonprofit serving military families, and her own daughters are in the US Navy. They have served in various overseas locations over the past six months, including the Middle East.

The US has more than 50,000 troops stationed across the region and has deployed thousands of additional Marines and sailors to support the war effort. Eighteen US service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 750 wounded.

During the war’s on-and-off fighting, shuttle diplomacy and failed peace talks, military families have experienced a “roller coaster of emotions,” Sanders said. “The moment that you feel you’re able to take a breath, you get gut-punched again.”

These are familiar pressures for the partners and children, mothers and fathers, of American troops. But the suddenness of the Iranian conflict, and its fitful pace, have had a compounding effect, relatives told Reuters.

In a Blue Star Families poll of some 200 active-duty military families in early March, 81% reported elevated stress from the Iran conflict.

The group has responded by stepping up its programming, creating online resource hubs, hosting webinars and in-person meet-ups, and matching military spouses going through a deployment for the first time with those who have been through it before.

Many service members’........

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