A Way to Cope When Your Child is in Harms Way

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Gail Keith
602-799-0662
gailk@gailkeithmarketing.com
 

A Way to Cope When Your Child is in Harms Way

 Phoenix, AZ, August 23, 2006  Viana Bruce, Key Volunteer for the United States Marine Corps unit based in Phoenix, Arizona and Leader of the Phoenix based Military Family Support Group, announced the group's third anniversary and the ongoing need for donations, supplies and support. The Military Family Support Group has met every Wednesday, at Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant, Metro Center, from 12:30-3:00 PM, in Phoenix, Arizona, since the war began over three years ago.

Bruce pioneered the Military Family Support Group (formerly known as Military Moms) after an emotional goodbye to her son, Adam Bruce, a Corporal in the United States Marines, Bulk Fuel Unit. Corporal Bruce (then a Private First Class) was deployed to Iraq just two months after he completed basic training at the age of 19.

Viana Bruce immediately bonded with other parents during the goodbyes and the value of remaining connected to others who have family in the military become painfully clear.

  The worry that a parent of a soldier feels is unlike any other parental worry one can experience.  Sometimes, you think you are crazy.  When you have a son or daughter who is in harms way, every time the phone rings you think, God, don't let this be THAT call. To be able to share that emotion, keeps you sane.  States Bruce who is also on the Governor 's  Commission for the 9/11 Memorial in downtown, Phoenix .

 Part of the strategy for coping and supporting military families, the Group is very active in community service.  In the past three years, The Military Family Support Group has sent over 2,000boxes of much needed supplies to the soldiers in every branch of the service.  The Group also receives reports from their soldiers when there are shortages of common personal items such as shampoo, boots or even sewing kits. In addition, when a soldier is aware of another soldier who does not have family or is not receiving mail, the Group is notified and they immediately begin personal communication through letters and e-mail.

  We think of every deployed soldier as our own son or daughter and we worry for their every day comfort. Having been a military mom for  more than 18 years, you never get used to your child being at war, even if that child is grown with his own family.  While the soldiers do their jobs, they are often out of communication for as much as 4-5 weeks at a time.  Its heartbreaking when you don't know what's going on, the support of other military parents is priceless. States Vivian Irvine, mother of United States Army SSGT Keith Follin, of the 5^th Engineer Battalion, Charlie Company, currently deployed in Iraq.

 The Military Family Support Group is also a source of information for the families.  At the weekly informal lunch meetings, the Group relies on insight from regular members who are active military and veterans who socialize with family members and comforts them in long periods of "no news". 

 It is estimated that approximately 75 soldiers have been lost to this war are from Arizona with dozens of others having connections here.  The Military Family Support Group has members who joined after receiving the tragic news of the death of their son or daughter, stating they need to be around other military parents as part of the healing process.  One of the members is the mother of Sergeant Joshua Harapko, of the United States Army, 10th Mountain Division, who was killed in much publicized Black Hawk Helicopter crash in March 2003, which took the lives of 11 soldiers during preparatory training.

The Military Family Support Group welcomes anyone who wishes give hands on personal support to Military Families and the soldiers in Iraq or other parts of the world.