FROM A HERO'S MOTHER:
Dear Samantha,
I recently talked to you on the phone regarding A Hero's Welcome and what it meant to my son and my family. My son is LCpl Aaron Martin from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Division ( 1/2 ).
This is such an emotional subject, sometimes it is easier to express in writing rather than in conversation. As I was telling you that Aaron was leaving again soon for Iraq, the tears wanted to come and my eyes were sweating. I choke up and get speechless because this boy is my heart. I am not sure what you are looking for but without giving you some sort of perspective of what the families and these service members go through, it is hard to put into words what A Hero's Welcome has done or what it meant to us. Whether they are in the Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. Whether they are stationed on a base or constantly facing danger, as my son did, it is generally the same story and same feelings: our lives and their lives have changed and will never be the same.
I was fortunate to have the internet and a connection with other parents and family whose sons served with mine and were in 1/2. They got me through those months. Just as our Heroes formed a lifelong bond with their Brothers, the families from all over the US have too. Your heart is not here while they're gone. Your life and all holidays are on hold for their return. You don't sleep at night or eat knowing in your heart they are in danger not sleeping or eating right either. You pray constantly for them all to come home safe. Pray that this isn't the day or night that knock comes to your door with bad news. It is months before you receive a letter or a call. This Hero NEVER complains, NEVER writes of his dangers or that he is shot at every day and witnesses the faces of poverty, hunger, sickness and death. Or that the day they talked to you they saw a comrade injured or die. They speak of none of that. The ones here at home find out through DOD releases a week later. I never missed a day writing, sometimes about nothing at all but just so he got a letter, we send numerous care boxes a week, whatever each individual family can afford for their loved one. It's what keeps us going and thoughts of them coming home. We turn into mailman stalkers waiting for news every month or 2. Or we guard the phone and sleep with it afraid we will miss that 5 minute call every couple months. This brings me to our Service members and what we heard when that call or letter finally came. They are all truly remarkable men and women thinking nothing of themselves or their conditions. They only want news from home. Their concerns were not that this was the day they might die but about what their friends and family were doing. What the pets were doing, what the weather was like or what we ate for dinner or watched on TV. Were there new movies out or new songs playing on the radio? Was everyone healthy and OK. In a few minutes time we would cram in weeks worth of happenings leaving out any bad news and hiding any terror we feel at home, which can't compare to what they feel. Always saying the "I Love You and Miss you" first so if connection was lost at least they knew that. They would ask for very little in their care boxes. Baby wipes to clean themselves because they haven't washed for months and they are sleeping in holes in 130 degree weather. Socks or underwear or toilet paper because they have to throw the ones they have out. Pencils or candy for the children over there. But most important pictures of home and more pictures! Pictures of flowers and seasons and road signs and places they hung out but mostly family and friends.
About 3 weeks before they come home you can hear the excitement in their voices. Like a child on Christmas Eve. You can also hear in their voices that they have changed and hear the worry or how their friends and family will perceive them and how strangers will treat them. It seems all their lifetime memories come back to them and all they've done and left behind. They dream of home. They talk of when they were little and things they did and remember. How they were read to or tucked in at night. Children born and are now walking or talking, all the things they have missed while they were gone and can never recapture. The conversations become only of coming home, being home safely on US soil, getting a good nights sleep and seeing friends and family. How will they feel and act and how will they be welcomed home?
What Sharon Hyland Keyser and A Hero's Welcome did FAR exceeded anyone's expectations. Aaron's was her 1st welcome home and was huge and a surprise to Aaron and even to us what she had up her sleeve. They have gotten even bigger and better through experience and her love for our men and women who serve and her love and respect for our Country. She talks to family and friends and actually gets to know each service member and what each one likes without ever having met them. Each Welcome Home is personalized to each Hero with their individual needs and likes. All the while respecting what they have been through, respecting their privacy yet getting whole communities involved at the same time. Actually Sharon is a Hero in her own right giving so much of her time to honor these men and women and trying to make them the role model for the children of our future to look up to instead of something or someone else who has nothing to do with our Country, our Pride and the Freedoms we have today. The biggest of THANK YOU's goes out to this Organization that started out as a vision and dream from the heart. To Sharon and all of us involved it is not whether you are Republican or Democrat. It is not whether you support a war or not or believe that it is right or wrong. It is about Honoring our Sons, Daughters, Fathers and Mothers, Sisters and Brothers, Cousins, Uncles, Aunts and friends who serve our country who give so much of themselves in the belief that it's what has given us our Freedoms of today and to keep them for our tomorrow's.
THANK YOU for your time.
Cynthia Martin
Also enclosed is a poem I wrote and sent to my son when he was on his 1st tour that sums it up on feelings and it's all about the Welcome Home.
The Wait
Another day has come and gone
Not quite sure how I'm hanging on,
But I've somehow gotten through
And my prayers go out to you.
The time goes by so slow
Our 1/2 family it grows
But we'll get through I'm sure
While our Heroes are at war.
A Father waits, a mother prays
The wife and girlfriend count the days
And we're somehow getting through
As our love goes out to you.
I'm sure you're not the same
Sometimes I feel insane
But somehow you're gonna grow
From the things you've seen and know.
Brothers, sisters sit and wait
Boxes and letters arriving late
With the Marines this is nothing new
News from home, going out to you.
Time goes by so slow
Our 1/2 support still grows
But we're halfway through for sure
While our Heroes are still at war.
A child asks for his dad
Our Soldier dreams of days they had
And of coming home, it's true
As our prayers stream out to you.
Nothing compares to home
Remember this, you're never alone
And soon your boots will be
On US soil with me.
