I can just imagine when they get home. They'll be so happy. No cots. Real beds. Real food. A lawn. Rain. And no sand."
Lauren Richardson, 14, knows about the sand on the other side of the world, where her parents are now. It gets everywhere, covers everything; the very desert rises up and leans forward, waiting for what comes next. Just like Lauren.
The kids at Fort Campbell, Ky., home of the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles, wait for news from Kuwait, and the latest word from their mom or dad. Everyone--children, wives, husbands, parents--keeps cell phones on at all times and answers them without apology, for fear of missing a call someone stood in line for five hours to make. They go to the post store to load up on toilet paper and Twinkies and other survival gear to ship over. Ten-year-olds talk about the status of negotiations with Turkey. Five-year-olds say the prayers of soldiers' families: "Dear God, please protect my dad, and don't let the bad guys kill him."
Soldiers' kids are different from other kids at a moment like this--and Lauren may be more different still. Her mom, her dad and her Uncle Darwin are all in Kuwait, and her Aunt Janis leaves this week. And if the fighting comes, her parents are likely to be the first married battalion commanders ever to fly into battle together. Lieut. Colonel Laura Richardson, 39, commands the 5th Battalion of the 101st aviation brigade, piloting the Black Hawks that ferry troops into battle; her husband, Lieut. Colonel Jim Richardson, 42, leads the 3rd Battalion, the Apaches that provide the protection and the firepower for those same troops. Individually they are rising Army stars; together they are making history in a military that with each passing year becomes more of a family business: more female, more married, more responsible for the children left behind.
Roughly half of today's soldiers are married with children; 8% are single parents, and 10% have a spouse who is also in uniform. (Six percent of male soldiers have a military spouse; 41% of female soldiers do.) This means that the Army trains its soldiers for both war and love, offering secure e-mail channels and guidance on how to stay in touch, in a Family Deployment Survival Handbook: Keep your spouse's picture in front of you when you write, it says. "Share your feelings as openly as you can without indulging in self-pity ... Let your spouse know how and why you love them. Above all, express yourself clearly so he/she won't have to think, 'I wonder what she/he meant by that?'"