Dear Moby,
I listen to you every morning on my way to work. Your support of our military men and women deeply touches me. I have a 24 year old son-in-law in the Navy who just returned from Afghanistan on April 1. My daughter, who is not quite 23, also a Sailor, arrived in Iraq on April 2, and my son who just turned 19, a Marine, arrived in Okinowa on April 3. I am very proud of all 3 of them. To be so young and willing to gladly lay down their lives for our freedom is something that should make us as Americans all proud.

Since April 1, I have experienced 2 other groups of people that also should make us proud. When my son-in-law returned from Afghanistan, he could give me no flight information because of security reasons. All he could give me was a tentative date, and to tell me to check with the USO when I arrived at the airport. We found the USO office and explained our situation. This group of volunteers bent over backwards for us. They gave us breakfast and a comfortable place to sit while we waited for them to find our son-in-laws flight. There were probably 50 or more children in uniform there. I say children because the oldest one there looked to be no more than 25. They were alone, in a strange airport going to places where they would most probably see things none of us should have to see. These USO volunteers treated these kids like they were their own. As a military mom, it was very heart warming to know that when my own children were on their way to their deployments, there would be people just like these people, who would treat my children with the love and respect all of our service men and women deserve.

The other group came to my attention last night. They are the American Red Cross. I have heard about them my whole life, but other than participating in local blood drives, I really never gave them much thought. I have no way to contact my son or daughter right now because of where they are other than email, and there is no guarantee when they will get those. A very dear friend of our family has cancer. She is like a grandmother to my children. Last night we were told if we wanted to see her, we needed to get to the hospital right away. Knowing that my children obviously couldn't get there, we were told if they could get to a phone, to call the hospital and they would be allowed to talk with her. I tried email, but when I hadn't gotten a response in an hour, I had to try other avenues. I called recruiters, help lines, their friends that are in the service with no luck. Finally I called the Red Cross. After taking my children's information concerning their rank and where they were stationed, I was told someone would be back in touch with me. Within the hour, my son and daughter had both called home and called the hospital to talk to their Mimi. The Red Cross also called back twice to ensure I had heard from both of them. It is not possible for my daughter to come home yet because of where she is and what she is doing, but the Red Cross has helped to arrange an emergency leave for my son, and hopefully he will be home Saturday for a 10 day leave.

To all of the military families out there, these 2 organizations are wonderful support groups for our children and for us as well, and I believe they deserve a big yeah baby too.
God Bless all of our military personnel that give so much and ask so little in return. And God Bless the USO and American Red Cross for being there for our children when we can't be.

Elizabeth Atkins
Proud Military Mom

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