Families bear a heavy load for patriotism

Last week over dinner at a restaurant, my 3-year-old daughter said, “Daddy, I am afraid you will go to work and I will never see you again.”
As you know I am no longer in the Army.  During my first tour in 2004-2005 I did not have a child. But I did have my family.  I remember giving my brother an embrace like I never had in my life before leaving for Iraq.
But last year I returned to Iraq as a civilian contractor working alongside members of the military, some of whom went to work and never came back.  I was away from my family and daughter for six months during that trip.  Most recently I moved from Texas to Maryland for a job and was away from them for 87 days before we were reunited.
When my daughter made that remark I instantly thought of all of the families that are left behind when a service member is killed in action.  These people are not lost, but as my little girl said, “I am afraid you won’t come back.” 
One of my high school classmates is living in Kentucky at Fort Campbell with three kids.  Her husband and their father is living in Afghanistan.  Perhaps many of you have sons or daughters or other family members currently deployed in harm’s way.  But in my opinion the number of us that serve or have family members who serve is much too low at less than one percent of the population.
These children of patriots share as much in the burden of a deployment as the service member does, and we would do well to remember that. My heart aches for these families, especially the ones I don’t know.  We need to reach out and lift these families up and hold them in our prayers because the inevitable thing is many loved ones won’t come home from work today or tomorrow or next week.
The deaths in Iraq are around 4,300, which means a lot of orphans.  Thousands of children whose fears they shared with my family unfortunately had them come true. God loves them, for I surely do. 
I am not putting forth these thoughts to discourage our national resolve to defeat our enemies. Quite the contrary: our resolve should be strengthened by these children and the other family members who get up every day and put on their kids’ shoes, while half a world away mom or dad is taking off their boots to lay on a cot, in the heat of a tent or the shade of a truck, and thinking about what the day holds for their family in America.
When I was a freshman there was a guy named Clint Prather who was a senior.  I did not know more than to recognize him in the halls.  I think he was on the cross country team.  I do know that he was killed in Afghanistan.