Military Families

Sending Her Brother to War

(I don't have any link to the actual article. I have a copy of it sitting in my room but no link. It was published ten years ago so I doubt its out there. This is my side. How I felt when my brother left when I was ten. Off to the side is a picture of my mom, dad, and brother back in 2005. -Storywriter19)

Now that the war is technically "over", you don't really hear about military families sending their sons and daughters off to war (whether it be willingly or against their wishes). But even during the time of war, you always read about the mother and the father's point of view. Never did you FULLY hear the sibling's point of view. You would hear snippets or comments of what the sibling had to say, but you would never be able to grasp the full concept of what that sibling was going through. It was pure Hell.

I was nine/ten years old when my brother shipped off to fight in the new war. A reporter by the name of Roberta de Boer followed my brother and parents around and wrote about his time before, during, and after boot-camp. She wrote wonderfully, if I do say so myself, about my brother not being afraid, of my mother trying not to cry as she sends her oldest and only son off to war, and my father who was just trying to be a stronghold for my mother, who as soon as my brother was out of sight, would burst into tears. There was very little to nothing about the sibling and I guess it's because I was still in elementary school; still in that stage where the adults thought you didn't understand what was going on. Here's the truth:

I understood.

I understood that there was a possibility that I would never see my only sibling, my wrestling buddy, my protector, my brother again. Ms. de Boer wrote at the end of her article, "[They] fought tears, and that one of them was more successful than the other, but only just barely." She writes about my parents' feelings and tears. She never asked about my feelings. No one ever did. Of course why would they? I was ten and in a special needs program at my school. They truly thought I wouldn't understand why my brother was leaving. They were dead wrong.

My brother worked hard to join the Marines. He went to the gym a lot and didn't eat much unless it was Slim-fast. Ms. de Boer wrote about when my brother found out he was leaving for boot-camp before Christmas. This is what happened that night for my parents:

My brother got a call from the recruiter's office saying he was to leave in the morning. My dad called my mom who was working out. She rushed home and they discussed it with my brother; trying to get him to stay until after Christmas. Being the head strong twenty year old, my brother won that battle and left the next morning at 4 am.

The scared feeling, the feeling of helplessness that my parents were feeling; I was feeling too. The way that night went for me was different:

My brother had just got off the phone and had told our dad what his plans were. Dad had walked off to call mom, leaving the siblings alone. I turned from my television show and stared at my brother.

"You're going to miss Christmas?" I asked him feeling helpless inside.

"Yes." He said simply not looking at me.

"You're leaving me?" I asked trying to keep the tremble out of my voice. He looked at me then and gave me a small, sad smile. Everything went on in a blur the rest of that night and only when my dad woke me up at 3:30 am the next morning did it feel like time stood still.