Saturday, August 4, 2018

The Reason We Fight

There’s been an accident.

These are four words a pilot’s wife never wants to hear. Any wife, for that matter.

After hearing such a statement, your heart drops and you pray that your husband isn’t involved.

Please, don’t let it be him.

And then, you pray for those who have been affected by the tragedy, unable to comprehend the absolute horror of going through something like this. You would not wish it on anyone, and wonder why tragedies  like this happen in the first place.

After all, you’ve seen the hours your husband has put into studying checklist after checklist, to be absolutely certain of a safe flight. Only you see firsthand the time and energy he invests to ensure that he is perfect in performance in order to avoid any mishaps. Repeating those words verbatim, stating that he needs to be 100% accurate because lives are at stake.

He calms your fears by reassuring you of the safety measures taken, and the ejection seats meant to save lives in dire situations.

You believe him.

You let him go out that door every day in his flight suit, trusting that he will come back to you, because the alternative is to live in fear and worry.

When a tragedy occurs  in the military, the whole community hurts. We are in this together. We know  the pride, the joy, and the sacrifice of serving our country as a unit. The active duty members and their families alike feel connected by this bond. And when we lose one of our own, although we may not have known them personally, there is absolute respect and solidarity.

Neither my husband nor I have family members who have been a part of the military before us. This is new territory for me. I have met some of the most wonderful people during our short time in the Air Force. I have felt the undeniable strength that  comes when individuals are united in such a noble cause. I give thanks for their sacrifices, knowing that the sacrifices I make are minuscule compared to those who are face to face with war, wherever they may be and in whatever capacity.

It is this gratitude for their sacrifice and the need for our freedoms to be protected that allow me to watch my husband leave every day. He continues to fight for the children who feel unsafe at night, and the widows who can’t sleep. He fights for the soldier beside him, and for those families who have given the ultimate sacrifice. He fights and he flies for those who hurt and those who dream.

He fights for all of us.



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