This will be a different Father’s Day for my family and many other military families in South Carolina. Later this week we’ll say goodbye to my husband, Michael. He’s starting a nearly year-long deployment to Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard. He’ll spend the next 12 months in the uniform of the United States, protecting his wife, our two children, and the freedoms of every American.
This isn’t the first time Michael has been deployed. In 2013, he went to Helmand Province in Afghanistan. We stood with him on the morning he left. We hugged and kissed him and told him how much we love him. We hoped with every fiber of our being that he would come home safely. That nothing would happen to him. That our family would be whole again. This week, we’ll do it all over again.
Former Gov. Nikki Haley is accompanied by her husband Michael Haley at Gov. Henry McMasters inauguration, on Jan. 11, 2023, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Haley presidential campaign)
A deployment is basically a year-long prayer for military families like ours. It’s the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about before you go to bed. But worry isn’t the only emotion you feel. It’s not even the most powerful feeling that military families experience. Most of all, we feel pride. We thank God for these heroes’ service to our country even as we pray for their safety.
COMFORT FOR MILITARY FAMILIES: US NONPROFIT HOUSES LOVED ONES OF INJURED, FALLEN SERVICE MEMBERS
Nothing can prepare you for the day your loved one deploys. Even when you know it’s coming, saying goodbye is still one of the hardest moments of your life. You’ve already talked about the what-ifs and the worst-case scenarios. Yet on the day itself, when you look your loved one in the eyes, it all goes out the window.
There is so much we can do to support our loved ones while they serve. On top of the prayers, the video calls, and the care packages, every military family I know wants to honor our heroes by keeping America strong.
That means teaching our children to love our country; giving our veterans the world-class care they earned once they return; and modernizing our military so our men and women in uniform can protect themselves, each other, and our freedom – from any enemy on earth.
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