When he visited the sailors on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) on May 1, President George W. Bush pointed out that while these sailors were at sea, back home their wives had given birth to 150 babies. That was true at every port hosting a welcoming home ceremony. When the USS Reuben James (FFG 57) and USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) returned to Pearl Harbor, 11 fathers had the opportunity to see their newborn children for the first time. At Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif., more than 100 sailors disembarked the USS Constellation (CV-64) and met the new addition to their families.
Understanding the importance of a father in a child's life, the military is trying to relieve some of the stress families experience during long deployments. Programs like United Through Reading help fathers to serve both their country and their family. It may not replace the warm feeling of sitting on daddy's lap while he reads a bedtime story, but while on board ship, sailors can videotape themselves reading books to their children and ship the tape home.
For the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq keeping the peace and restoring order for the Iraqi people, the hope is that their absence from home will only be temporary. For most of them it will, but Iraq is still a dangerous place. To date, 181 American military personnel have been killed in Iraq, and at least 85 young children -- some of them not yet born -- lost their fathers during this war.
As President Bush said in his Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery: "Americans like these did not fight for glory, but to fulfill a duty. They did not yearn to be heroes, they yearned to see mom and dad again and to hold their sweethearts and to watch their sons and daughters grow." These men are called heroes and rightfully so.
But largely forgotten still are the many others who have sacrificed, and continue to do so -- the children left behind. Birthdays, ballet recitals, their first at-bat in a Little League game are just a few of the important events in a child's life that are performed or celebrated without the love and guidance from Dad. Their sacrifice is the lonely home whose quiet night is pierced by the sound down the hall of Mom crying herself to sleep.
In their teen-age years, they go to the movies with their friends only to see their dead father's courage mocked on the big screen by leftist producers like Oliver Stone. They struggle to save for college, trying yet again to accomplish in their life a goal they know would have made their father proud.
The 1st Battalion of the 181st Field Artillery of the Tennessee Army National Guard is a unique unit. Among its ranks are seven fathers who are serving with their sons. For them, this Father's Day will be a special one.
As you celebrate with your father today, or when you give him a call on the phone, say a prayer for those children who are marking this day as the first that their father is no longer with them.