GOOD-BYE :(

I love you were the last words I heard from him. Tears were rolling down my face. As the bus started up, I touched his hand and hoped he would come back. My father was leaving for Iraq for the 1st time and it was hard to not be with him everyday for a whole year. I wondered and prayed to God that he would be O.K. and come back home. He missed my birthday and christmas. After a year we got a call and found out he would have to stay for another 4 months. When i heard that dreadful news, I cried. It would be another 4 whole months without my dad, best friend and my other half. As the 4 months past it was time for him to come home.

Jasmine, Age 13

SAD

Deployment affects my life because I miss my mom a lot. Some nights I cry myself to sleep. It hurts when you do not know if you are going to be able to talk or see your mom again. Sometimes I wish she was not in the military.

Daija, Age 13

UNTITLED

In my family my dad gives the advice, he's a best friend to me, my mom, and sister. He's the best cook in the family. Home cooked meals are hard to come by when he's gone. Usually he always knows what to say, even if its not what I want to hear. Living without it is like starting from scratch, you have to learn to do things by yourself. I ended up closer to my mom because she is my replacement dad while he's gone. She can't always help with school work, but she's strong enough for the both of us and my sister too. There's times when we don't want to be around any of the people in our home because of many different reasons, but we have to move on and focus on the good things. In this deployment I have become a different person, I have lost some good things about me, but what I have gained is more than what I have lost. Honestly, its made me a stronger person. My dad loves his job, and he is very focused and I wouldn't want to purposely do anything that would make him distracted. Even though we will have good times and we will have bad times, either way he will always be there for me. Author Unknown MY DAD We went shopping for him and bought him gifts. We took him out to Ruby Tuesday the night before we left. He gave us each a necklace and we all cried. The morning he left I cried so much. My pillow was soaked with tears of him leaving. Deployment is a very big thing. It hurts people inside. Some people cry and some people go into a depression mode but when the soldiers come back it's a blast!

Kristine, Age 14

DEPLOYMENT HURTS

I have never been a normal kid. Since I was born I've been in the military. I was actually going to be born in Indianapolis but because of the army, I was born in South Carolina. It's really hard to be a military kid because every 3 years you have to leave behind great places, great people & great friends. As hard as it is being a teenager, it's even harder being the child of a deployed soldier. When I found out my dad was going to be deployed I was crushed. All different things like he could be killed and that's a long time without a dad, what's going to happen while he's gone were going through my mind. I was so sad. So we did so many things for Dad. Kayla, Age 13 MY UNTOLD DEPLOYMENT STORY My name is Jamael Smith and this is the first time I have shared my deployment story. Last year in December 2007, my dad was deployed to Camp Taji, Iraq. I really never thought my dad would ever have to go to Iraq. I heard many stories from my friends that have parents deployed so I guess you could say I was prepared for this event. When it was time for my dad to go to the airport it was really early in the morning and it was a school day so I didn't go. But I remember him going into my room and waking me up to tell me that it was time for him to head out to the airport and to be good for my mom because this was going to be a hard time for her. I was half asleep so I really didn't think anything of what was happening because I was just trying to go back to sleep. It really didn't hit me that he was gone until later on during the day when I was in school. Thinking about what all my friends said about how they felt about their parents being deployed (how they were sad for the first couple of months then they either got over it, they went through a depressant stage, or really never got over it until their parents came back for good but their life was not the same after that) I never felt any of those things. To me personally I just think of his deployment as his extended PTA and he would be coming back in a year and not in one month. So like when people ask me about if I miss my dad and how I feel about him being deployed I just say that I don't miss him because I know that he is coming back and he is safe because he is a good person and I know that the Lord is watching over him. Also, that I really don't feel anything about him being deployed. But when they ask me that and my mom or sister is around I don't say anything. I just look at my mom or sister then back to the person who asked the question and just stare at that person in silence. I'm not trying to be rude or mean or anything I just don't answer because I don't want to upset them by saying I don't miss my dad and I don't feel anything since he is deployed. And that is my story.

Jamael, Age 15