I think about myself as a child and how naive I was to the whole aspect of the military lifestyle. We lived near an Air Force Base, but it was a relatively small one and represented a small part of the population of our town. My best friend was an Air Force brat, but I didn't really think about that being a part of who she was. I knew she had moved in a couple years before, but outside of that I didn't see anything different. Then a month or so after everything was over with Operation: Desert Storm, her dad came in to talk to our class about his deployment. We had all heard about what took place, but it didn't really hit home. It was something so far away, something that didn't affect us. My friend had acted a little weird and mentioned that her dad had to be gone for a little bit, but a direct connection wasn't made... I was completely naive.
Although I can never put myself in the position of a military child, I know that my boys will cross other kids who were like I was, other kids who are naive about what being a military child means. For my boys and so many others, it means many missed birthdays and holidays, it means not getting to talk to daddy for days, if not weeks, it means saying goodbye a lot more often than they ever would like to - I could go on for days.
Looking back now, knowing the challenges that have taken place and that will continue to come for the boys, I know that there were so many other things I could have done to be a support to my friend. I also hope that as this road continues and we find ourselves moving around and continuing to have the regular separations that the children our boys come across will do better about taking the time to understand.
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