|
WASHINGTON, April 6, 2006 – Proud military parents deployed throughout the terror war theaters of operation are featured on the America Supports You Web site devoted to April's Month of the Military Child.
Messages from nearly 50 servicemembers can be found on the link "Video Greetings From Troops to Their Military Kids" at www.americasupportsyou.mil. Links at the site play greetings and offer words of comfort to children back in the states. The messages also are playing on the Pentagon Channel.
Parents from all four services deployed to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan took time to make 10- to 15-second video "shout-outs."
Navy Seaman Neil Hungerford at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, told his son, Ashton, in Texas, that he loved him "very much."
"Hi, kids, I love you," Marine Lance Cpl. Brad Patton, also at Camp Fallujah, told his children, William and Madison, in California.
"I love you, and I miss you," Army Capt. Carita Towns at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, said to her son, Jayden, in Virginia.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Marcus Darnell, in Kabul, Afghanistan, squeezed in some bonus information to his children, Jordan and Zane, in Utah: "I want to let you know I'll be home real soon."
Then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger established April as the Month of the Military Child in 1986. Weinberger, who died at 88 on March 28 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery April 4, wanted to showcase military children, whose parents are often deployed or work long hours in defending their country.
"Military children endure a great deal of change as a result of a parent's military career," Douglas Ide, of the Army's Community and Family Support Center, told American Forces Press Service in an interview. "The military family averages nine moves through a 20-year career. And in doing so, their children must say goodbye to friends, change schools, and start all over again."
|
