Military Moms feel every loss!

I was once just like most of you. I would quickly pass over the stories of lost service members in the paper….thinking that if they weren’t area losses then they really didn’t affect me. But I can’t do that any more. And I think it makes those close to me uncomfortable when I speak of such things, or when I cry about a loss in Iraq or Afghanistan…..you don’t know what to make of such emotions because they are so foreign to you. So I’m going to try to explain them to you.

As a Military parent I am often told to thank my son for the service to his country and that his sacrifices are appreciated. And while all of those who sign up to serve do make great sacrifices, what you may not realize is that their families make sacrifices too. There are few experiences outside of the military where you will go weeks or months at a time without even hearing your child’s voice. Many of us will get together with family over this holiday weekend….in our family we will celebrate the multitude of September birthdays, including my own, but no matter how many of us are there, my thoughts are always on the one member who is not there – my own son the Marine. And while I am very grateful that he has not been deployed to the sands – he is still 44 hundred miles away and it has now been 8 months since I have been able to hug him. Even a year and a half after he left home I am still frequently overwhelmed by how much I still miss him. But I will see him soon, unlike the family of Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, whose ultimate sacrifice is reported in this morning’s paper.

You probably don’t realize that as a military parent I now feel each and every loss of a service member. Obviously not as fully as their own family, but for me, as a member of the Marine family. I know that that loss is felt immensely by each and every Marine in his unit, because I know that from their very first day of boot camp those Marines are taught that even more important than getting yourself out of a combat situation is getting the guy next you out and home safely. I know that each and every Marine is considered a brother to his fellow Marine even if they have never met. I know that Marine Mothers share a bond because we know what it’s like to miss our children and worry about them, and know that those with deployed children face the fear everyday of a government car pulling in to their drive. We live by the phrase “no news is good news.”

And while I’d love for you to from this moment forward read each and every story about our fallen hero’s, I realize that’s asking a little much. So maybe just acknowledge our sacrifice occasionally, ask us how our kids are doing – we love to brag on them – and maybe just give us a hug when there’s been another loss, and realize that there is a price being paid for the freedoms that you are enjoying, realize that it can’t always be someone else’s son.