(Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted on Memorial Day 2018.)
I lived about 15 miles from Fort Bragg, North Carolina from 1994 to 2012, in a rural area where many Army officers and members of the various Special Forces groups based there made their home. After 9/11 our community was immediately impacted as Fort Bragg forces were some of the first deployed in the War on Terror. We were reminded daily of the sacrifices these families were making – the dad who wasn’t there to participate in Little League with the kids or read a bedtime story or attend awards ceremonies at the elementary school, or any of the hundreds of little things that make up family life. Unfortunately, some of the dads never made it home.
Tiffany and I became friends when our boys were in the same Cub Scout pack starting in 2002. I knew it was difficult for her to keep everything together at home…
