CEDAR FALLS - The young bride loved her husband, an officer in the Coast Guard.

But the Waterloo native wasn't prepared for life as a military wife. Two days after Jocelyn Falck wed Rob Green on July 5, 2003, in a chapel in Arlington National Cemetery, the couple took a leisurely drive out to his new post in Homer, Alaska.

"It was a big shock," Jocelyn Green, 31, said. "A big, big culture shock."

The 1996 graduate of Walnut Ridge Baptist Academy faced three major adjustments. She exchanged an editing job that she loved for life as a homemaker. She went from living in the nation's capital to residing in small-town Alaska, where an outing to Wal-Mart required a 10-hour round trip. Jocelyn also had to learn the ropes of military culture.

With few friends and Rob gone to sea for weeks or months at a time - a cumulative seven months during the couple's first year of marriage - Jocelyn struggled with loneliness and questioned her purpose.

"I felt like I was just a tagalong," Jocelyn said.

"It was very isolating," she added.

Eventually, Jocelyn, a Christian, came to view solitude as a gift and a chance to build her relationship with God. Her one-year stint in Alaska stretched her faith in other areas of her life.

The challenging experience also landed Jocelyn her first book contract.

The freelance writer shares her struggles and lessons in faith in a book recently published by Moody Publishers. "Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives" includes first-person reflections from Green and 14 other contributors representing every branch of the U.S. military.

The 80-plus devotionals, each a five-minute, substantive read, cover topics such as contentment, loneliness, fear, death, infidelity, gossip and marital strife. Chapters also include Bible verses, introspective questions and a sample prayer.

"Every military wife can find something to relate to in this book," Jocelyn said.

She first considered publishing her experiences while living in Alaska but worried she lacked credibility given her newness to life in the military. She also assumed that other authors had beaten her to the punch.

But the idea for a book lingered.

In 2004, Jocelyn said she successfully pitched her idea to an agent who initially said he wasn't taking new ideas. Three uncertain years passed before a publisher took on the project. In that time, Jocelyn and Rob Green left the military and moved to Cedar Falls to be near her family.

"I thought it would never be published," she said.

But the wait gave her time to assemble a diverse team of military wives - most strangers before this project - from across the United States. The quality of the work and the intimacy of the struggles shared surprised and touched the project's coordinator.

"They pour their hearts into this stuff," Jocelyn said.

Jocelyn thinks her book may prove useful to husbands, parents or "anyone who loves a military wife." Rob, a member of the Coast Guard for 15 years, said he initially wasn't aware of his wife's struggles.

"I won't kid you on that," he said. "I really had no clue."

According to the Greens, some military wives keep quiet about personal struggles so as not to distract their husbands from their military tasks. And Rob, whose duties once included counseling the men on his ship, said fellow Coast Guard members didn't really talk about "home stuff."

Rob encourages couples to take advantage of family resources offered through the military like marriage retreats and counseling. He also sees "Faith Deployed" as a tool for helping couples talk through issues in a nonconfrontational way - ideally before issues become problems.

"We are just excited there is an opportunity, really, to just show military wives that they are not alone," Rob said. "They don't have to put up a front all the time that everything is just fine."

Jocelyn also is a coauthor for the book "Stories of Faith and Courage from Iraq," with Jane Hampton Cook and Dr. John Croushorn. The book is due out around Father's Day, she said.

Contact Karen Heinselman at (319) 291-1581 or karen.heinselman@wcfcourier.com.