Life As An Army Mom

I was awakened this morning by the ringing of the phone. It was a Captain Metz from Fort Wainwright, Alaska where my son is based. At the moment my son, Phil, is deployed in Iraq where his duty station is Mozul. Captain Metz said he was calling to tell me that the Army was very sorry , he had bad news ... my son was hit by an IED while on a foot patrol in the city several hours earlier. He read me an official account of the event and it seemed like the longest conversation in my life. It didn't seem to me like he said if my son was dead or alive until the very end.

But, God Bless Phil.....he had called me first to tell me what had happened and that he was okay. He sustained a minor injury, is all, some shrapnel had hit his knee. Sometimes my son can be a duh-duh - forgetting birthdays, not telling me about things a mother wants to know or hear - but when it counts, I mean really counts, like today ... he comes through, that boy of mine. I was prepared for Captain Metz's call when it came because Phil gave me the heads up.

I have to say though, when I heard the words from the Captain it was shocking and quite unnerving. In that moment I pictured myself receiving that call without advance notice. I pictured the words of that call as if they could have been the worst possible news and I got a small glimpse of how devastating those calls must be to mothers all over the world in countless countries. We mothers have been sending our boys off to war since the beginning of time and we try to do so bravely, leaving them in the Lord's hands when really all we want is to wrap them in a blankie, hold them, feed them chicken soup and send them out to play. But our boys grow up and we do our best to let them. Today I got the best possible bad news the Army can give a mother. Today, and for many days to come, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, daughters, and sons who didn't get such good news. God bless you and be with you. And ,God, please don't ever stop watching over our soldiers. Thanks, Lorie, just one little mommy in Idaho.