When my father, Odysseus, and his men sailed off to the Trojan War, they were confident their gods favored a quick victory. Instead, the siege of Troy lasted ten years. After Troy fell, the survivors made their way home to Sparta, Mycenae, Pylos, and elsewhere in the ancient Peloponnese. Neither my father nor any of his troops arrived home with the rest. We waited for years as the news grew worse. Odysseus was dead, we were told,or imprisoned, or, worst yet, he had married another woman and abandoned my mother Penelope, my brother Telemachus, and me.


If he is alive somewhere, his thoughts may wander to Penelope and Telemachus, but he won’t be thinking of me. I am the daughter he doesn’t know exists. Odysseus went off to the Trojan War when his son, Telemachus, was barely old enough to walk. His wife, Penelope, was a teenage bride, and is now a young wife, mother, and queen who has to try to rule Ithaca without him.


I was born seven months after he left. I am a hero’s daughter and a princess of his realm, but I have lived my entire life without a father. I’m nineteen now, and still waiting.


All over the world, and throughout history children grow up as I have. This website will focus on the children of those men and women who have gone off to fight America's wars, and provide information and resources for all who care about military families and want to help.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Military Children Need Less?

I saw this yesterday and wondered how it could be, with all the good will toward military families that seems to exist today, that this high-profile and successful program has to worry about funding.  Why can't we text a contribution to causes affecting military children and have it put on our phone bill?  We can do what we put our minds to as a nation.  Why not make everyone's children our own?

Operation Purple in Jeopardy

September 03, 2010
PR Newswire
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Nation prepares for the unofficial wind up of summer 2010, 10,000 children of active duty military service members are in jeopardy of losing one of the largest private programs helping them cope with the lengthy and repeated deployments of their parents. Without funding from the private sector in the coming months, Operation Purple Camps will not be around in the summer of 2011, according to the National Military Family Association, which runs the program in nearly 70 locations in more than 30 states.
Posted by About AART at 6:19 AM

2 comments:

  1. KathleenSeptember 13, 2010 at 8:33 PM

    I had not heard of this, thank you for posting. I wonder what we can do to draw attention to this? I am a co-author of books for military children and am acquainted with the purple camps.
    I am interested in your book, and appreciate your desire to call attention to the needs of these children. As the mother of an Army Sgt. and the grandmother of two military kids, I know it is not easy to grow up without a parent who is serving our nation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. About AARTSeptember 17, 2010 at 7:42 AM

    Kathleen--thanks for writing. I'm getting a lot out of keeping this blog, and I am glad you have found it. Please keep in touch!

    ReplyDelete

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