Memorial Day is a day to remember those fallen while in military service. And I don’t mean to discount that ultimate sacrifice at all with this post, rather I mean to expand who also needs to be remembered.
The families.
Luckily for me, my dad’s career in the Air Force required him to not be deployed during the first Iraq War, or really ever during the Cold War. And while he missed out on some events during my childhood with TDYs and pulling alerts, I was never really afraid for his life. Maybe I should have been, but I wasn’t.
That’s not the same for today’s military children. I see the differences in the students I teach, and in my nephews. The fears are real, the uncertainty is distracting, and the sorrow can be way more difficult to bounce back from.
So while many people today visited cemeteries and thought about those lost on the various battlefields of American History, I thought about my students, my nephews, and my immediate family. Soldiers’ victories are family victories, soldiers’ defeats are family defeats, soldiers’ sorrows are family sorrows.
Many thanks to my parents for trying their best to make our lives as normal as possible, and big ups to Deanne for doing the same for her kids. It’s not an easy job, being a soldier’s family.
Choked me up. Thank you. I love how beautifully simple this is.
It is not an easy job, but I would not trade our military life for anything; even all those nights waiting for a phone call from a sat phone that may or may not hold a connection.
Thank you for remembering us.