For the past seven years I haven't slept well, my hair started falling out and every time a strange car pulled into the driveway my heart sank. My youngest son spent 4 tours of duty in Iraq in some of the hot spots, my oldest son spent one tour of duty near Baghdad for 15 months. The last deployment both of my sons were in Iraq as well as my nephew who has served 3 tours of duty there. The war has affected every part of our lives--when they are deployed they are in your every waking thought and when they come home, war weary and changed, you don't know how to reach them. Some topics are just off limits like the witnessing of a buddy blown up by a RPG. Phone calls in the middle of the night from a screaming young man, my son, who is having a panic attack and is afraid he is going to die. A son who can't sleep without a gun under his pillow "just in case". Hardened and cruel sense of humor, families divided by not only the war but by politics of the war. How has the war affected our lives? We've sacrificed peace in our lives, forever, while the rest of the country goes on with their theirs blissfully ignorant...
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