The family also serves

From Helmand Blog:

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

If you think the 3 Rifles heroes of Afghanistan are brave, meet their families

By Robert Hardman

Captain Craig McBurney quietly leaves the room, his mobile phone pressed to his ear.

A mother is on the line, understandably distraught having just learned that her son has been shot.
Keeping busy: Kim Harrison and daughter Brooke, four

The young man will pull through and has been well enough to call her from his hospital bed in Afghanistan.

But she is in shock. 'The poor woman was on the floor in pieces,' says Capt McBurney when he returns.

He introduces me to a group of Army wives who can now dare to contemplate that longed-for moment - next month's reunion with their husbands.

Are they ticking off the days? Some shake their heads.

'Tempting fate,' says one. Deborah Fleming, on the other hand, tells me she is counting down to the two big stars on her calendar. One marks Rifleman John Fleming's return home. The other, days later, is the due date for their baby.

Capt McBurney has to slide out of the room again. It turns out that a recuperating double amputee needs help with a hospital appointment. His phone rings once more.

The parents of a dead Rifleman are desperate to retrieve their son's camera and its precious images from Afghanistan.

In fact, Capt McBurney's phone hardly stops. It might be a soldier's wife having a late-night panic attack. It might be a dawn alert from a Casualty Notifying Officer at the door of a family whose life is about to fall apart....

My regular readers already know what respect I have for our military families, from all our coalition countries.

This column is about families from the UK, but the experiences of the home front heroes cross all geographical boundaries. Go read the rest of this one here.

Oh, and every chance you get, THANK the family. I do!

H/T Thunder Run