1/6 Mom Connecting to the War Zone

writer David Wood shares with us an interesting way one of our 1/6 Marines Mom is engaging and helping in the larger picture.

David writes, "I got a call this morning from a 1/6 Mom with an interesting take on dealing with her anxiety about having a son in a war zone.Her son serves with the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, part of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which deployed to Afghanistan in March. She asked to remain somewhat anonymous.

She's been sending him a box every week, like many families of deployed Marines and soldiers. I can tell you those packages are a double delight -- good stuff inside and the wonderful feeling that someone's thought of you.

"Sending a box every week, it's my only way of doing something -- he opens the box and I am with him in some way," she says, echoing the feelings of many.

But it wasn't enough for this 1/6 Mom.

She recently came across one of the many more direct ways to be involved. This one is called Women for Women; it enables folks here to directly support a woman in Afghanistan -- or lots of other places, for that matter.

I am not plugging this organization or any like it. But the experience of 1/6 Mom is worth passing on.

By "adopting" a mother in Afghanistan, 1/6 Mom feels she's doing something for her son, as well. The money she sends goes to help one woman go to school, learn a trade, and perhaps get a micro-loan for a small business.

"I felt this was a way of taking the next step and moving away from just thinking of the war," says 1/6 Mom. "It's more of, how can we really help them? It's my way of showing, American's aren't just cowboys, but there are people here who think about the bigger picture and want the lives of Afghans to be better, particularly the women.

"Here's a woman who has eight kids, lives in total poverty, no electricity. It's totally grim. This is my way of saying, one woman at a time, we can make a difference.

"At the same time, it's really about my son, and him being there. ... Part of me thinks if he ends up in the back yard possibly of this woman, and before she thought of Americans as these bullies, now she is going to think twice because I am helping her put her life back together. It's to try to heal the people and their view of Americans.''

Like military mothers everywhere, she is proud of her son and what he is doing.

I respect him,'' she says. But she also admits: "Given the opportunity, I'd still go over and drag his butt out of there.''

You can find Women for Women here, and a list of many non-governmental organizations working in Afghanistan and other war zones here.

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