Our life is split into “before” and “after” 9/11/01 – like a birth, a marriage, a divorce, or a death…so is war. Because of this tragic attack on American soil, my son joined the National Guard while attending college in a small Wisconsin town.
I will admit to many tears and much begging. My childhood encompassed the 1960s and the Vietnam War – I wore a POW bracelet for Captain Fred A W Frankie Jr. All I could think of was losing him. War is not a movie, it’s not a game, it is everything a mother cannot bear. All of my instincts screamed “no!” – this was the child whose hand I held while he crossed the street, the child that I taught to swim, the child who I rocked and dressed and tucked in bed at night. Grown now and making a huge decision that would affect us all.
But his conviction was solid – and in the end I promised to support him in every way possible. We attended his graduations at each of his training bases, celebrating all of his accomplishments. And soon after his training was complete, as expected, he was deployed. We hugged him goodbye and quietly sent him to travel the the Highway of death – also known as “the most dangerous piece of asphalt in the world”.
I could not be prouder of the man my little boy has become. He is brave and he is strong. He believes in right & wrong – and he is willing to stand behind his convictions. Through each deployment his sister and I have waited together for his safe return. In 12th grade she wrote this poem for a high school class – it was her way of expressing how our lives had changed forever:
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Sister of a soldier
I am the sister of a soldier
I wonder when he will come home
I hear the sound of his voice in my dreams
I see him sitting in his room at night
I want to see him come home safe
I am the sister of a soldier
I pretend that we are home and watching TV
I feel his arms around me when he’s home
I hear the sound of drums in my soul
I worry that I won’t get to see him get married
I am sad that he might never come back
I am the sister of a soldier
I understand that I can’t be selfish
I say that other people need him too
I say that he is the bravest man I know
I try not to cry when I see him leave
I hope I’ll see him again someday
I am the sister of a soldier
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Two dangerous deployments consumed the years of his 20s – 8 years of our lives belong to the US military because 9/11 happened and the bravest man I know stepped forward.