( CNN ) -- When the Pentagon decided last week to delay the deployment of aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman to the Persian Gulf because of looming budget cuts , some military families found their already unpredictable lives thrown into even more uncertainty , victims of the ugly budget battle in Congress . One military wife , Jenelle Hatzung , said she heard on the news , rather than from the Navy , that her husband 's deployment was canceled just days before he was set to leave on the USS Truman . `` I never thought Congress ' inability to pass a budget would so intimately affect my personal life , '' she said . She and her husband had plannedthe adoption of a baby to coincide with the time he would be home ; now , those plans are in peril as her ensign husband faces a new schedule that will probably interrupt the proceedings . `` It is n't right , '' wrote Navy wife Jill Qualters on her blog . `` I know that this whole thing comes down to the one thing that runs the world : money . And I know it is completely naive of me to think that families would come first . But this kind of emotional whiplash takes a toll . '' All military families are living under the shadow of upcoming sequestration budget cuts . Although we hear congressional leaders extol their support for military families -- they even wear their alleged patriotism on their smart striped suits -- it 's clear from inaction on the budget that their support is as empty as the USS Truman 's deck . Panetta warns of degraded military readiness from cuts . You see , not a lot of Americans serve in the military ; it 's only a tiny slice of the pie . According to a Pew Research study , about one-half of 1 % of American adults have served on active duty at any given time in the past decade . So when the wind dies down and the flags stop flapping , military families are truly forgotten . We are no longer `` special '' interests . A bit of Sequestration 101 : When legislators raised the debt ceiling in 2011 but could n't agree on a deficit-cutting plan , they passed the Budget Control Act , which called for huge automatic spending cuts -- or sequestration -- to start in January 2013 unless a plan for balancing the budget was drawn up . That did n't happen . If nothing changes , $ 1.2 trillion in automatic defense and nondefense spending cuts , divided evenly , will kick in over the next 10 years . On military installations across the United States and around the world , operations have been hurt . Troops and brass are waiting for the ax to fall . Again . Commanders are paralyzed , unable to schedule training or order equipment because they do n't know their budgets . Troops preparing for combat deployments are n't getting the training that is essential for them to survive their missions . Service members in Afghanistan are already seeing the effects of anticipated budget cuts in everything from the equipment they are issued , or not issued , to the hours the chow halls are open . We do n't know what will happen to funding for the programs designed to tackle this war 's ugly twins , post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury , not to mention the rising suicide epidemic among veterans and military family members . The fact is , we are losing about 22 veterans to suicide every day , with no evidence that the deadly tide is retreating . By the Numbers : Recent defense spending . Military pay is exempt from sequestration cuts , but pay raises are n't . Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will also ask Congress to limit next year 's military pay increase to just 1 % , even though the Labor Department 's expected Employment Cost index for 2014 is higher . Translation : an effective pay cut . Congress , it seems , is banking on our patriotism once again . They are taking for granted that the less than 1 % who responded after the worst terrorist attacks in our nation 's history -- and then responded again by staying in the fight for 11 years and counting -- will respond yet again by standing by stoically . We understand that sacrifice is required of everyone in order to reduce our national debt , but the sacrifice should be shared by all . We can not perpetuate this fiscal mess . So this time around , we will pour our hearts and souls into compelling government leaders to feel , if only for a moment , what playing politics with people like Hatzung truly means . Military families will take to social media to write , tweet and post about the fiscal cliff 's dangerous slide . They will write their members of Congress to remind them that relying on 1 % of Americans to shoulder a nation 's burden is preposterous . And do n't think our problems do n't really affect most Americans . According to Panetta , `` rough estimates suggest after 10 years of these cuts , we would have the smallest ground force since 1940 , the smallest number of ships since 1915 , and the smallest Air Force in ... history . '' Americans will be more vulnerable to emerging threats than ever , and with less training and equipment to respond . In other words , when the wolves come back to our door , there will be fewer , and noticeably weaker , dogs to keep them at bay . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writers .
Writers : Military families live with uncertainty as sequestration cuts loom . Families ca n't make plans , they say ; troops and brass wait for sequestration ax to fall . Congress seems to forget military families when it 's not election season , they write . Comment: Secretary of defense warns of a diminished ability to defend nation if cuts happen .