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.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Remembering the Children

The Kaiserslautern Kindergraves Memorial Foundation will sign a new lease with the city of Kaiserslautern, Germany this spring to preserve the graves of 451 American military children buried there.
Most of those buried at the Kaiserslautern city cemetery are children of U.S. military stationed from 1952 to 1971, a time when U.S. service members did not have the means to transport the dead to the States for burial. Most of the children died in and around Kaiserslautern before they were 6 months old.
Unlike in America, grave sites in Germany are leased for a specific period of time, usually from 15 to 30 years. If a lease is not renewed, the grave’s contents are removed and the grave site reverts to state ownership.
A nonprofit, volunteer organization managed by the Ramstein Area Chief’s Group and the German-American and International Women’s Club, the foundation began seeking donations about a year ago to renew a 25-year lease at a cost of 6,800 euro — about $9,425, according to the group’s co-chairman, Terence DeLay.
“We couldn’t believe how fast the money was raised,” DeLay said. Surplus donations will purchase a new bronze statue for the grave site and resore gravestones.. 
“I think we have a responsibility to our service men and women, who came over here post-World War II,” DeLay said. “We can’t let the memories of the children go.”
Posted by About AART at 7:23 AM

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