Nice article from local paper

Turn by Natalie June Reilly

You think you know what it means to love your country, until your firstborn son comes to you with the news that he’s joined the U.S. Navy. The sheer pride on his face is enough to comfort you — his mother — because you know he’s no longer a little boy. He is a young man struggling to find his feet in this world.

Admiration doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what you feel for him and for his decision. However, in the back of your mind, haunting images of wartime cut in and suddenly you’re staring the most real kind of sacrifice in the face, wondering if you ever really loved your country that much.

My son, Billy, left for boot camp a few weeks ago. I, alongside his dad, grandmother and younger brother, witnessed him raise his right hand and swear an oath to protect his country — at all costs. It was one of the most profound moments of my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but nearly 21 years ago I gave birth to a U.S. sailor, one of the good guys. What’s not to be proud about that?

As a mother, I suddenly became acutely aware of other men and women in uniform. I am compelled to hug them, hold them close so that they might never forget how much they are loved and appreciated, if for no other reason than to think that someone might do the same for my son while he is out of arm’s reach. I imagine it wouldn’t hurt to do the same for their mothers, as I’m sure they deserve it as much, if not more. For theirs is a sacrifice hard to put into mere words.

Within just a few days of my son enlisting, I learned of one such mother’s sacrifice. Her son’s name was Chief Petty Officer Christian Michael Pike. He was a sailor from Peoria, a handsome young man who died from wounds he suffered in Afghanistan, while upholding the same oath that I watched my son and a group of other young men and women take just days before. This devastating news hit too close to home.

You think you know what it means to love your son, or even your daughter for that matter, until you watch him or her walk out of the safe comfort of your home and into the waiting arms of our U.S. military and all that entails.

And you think you know what faith is, but until you see your child walk through your front door and back into your waiting arms, you really don’t. God bless our troops and God bless their mothers, every last one.