For my first Patriotic Friday entry, I wanted to celebrate our local soldiers here at Ft. Campbell.  We moved to this area about 9 years ago and I had never seen so many soldiers in uniform in my life.  It was a bit unnerving to me actually when I would go into Wal Mart and see all of those men in their fatigues.  They just all looked so tough.  But after a while, I started making friends and meeting their Army husbands... and they weren't so scary after all.  In fact I was pretty proud to know that these men were out serving and protecting our country.


They were guys that were in our Sunday School class, in the praise team at church, guys that came and helped us move, guys that enjoyed a Father/Son fishing day, guys that had a great time just visiting and hanging out with family and friends.  Guys that had to go away for weeks, months, and possibly a year at a time.  Guys that got deployed to the war. 

And all of the sudden praying for our troops, became so much more dear to me.  I realized that each of these men was somebody's husband, dad, son, brother, uncle, etc... And that for all of that time away from home, there was a mom having to act like a single mom and take on the responsibility of both parents, trying to guard their children from the news, and to keep things fun while dad was away.  And those children were dealing with dad missing their games, church musicals, recitals, and holidays, but they all press on like little soldiers cause that's just their dad's job!


So whenever I hear somebody mentioning the 101st or the different units based at Ft. Campbell, I feel a certain sense of pride knowing that these are our friends out there - doing their jobs, ministering to those around them, and putting their lives on the line for all of us.