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.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Our Youngest Vets

Happy Veterans Day to the ones who serve too. I’m talking about the children of veterans. I’m talking about the children of Memorial Day too. It’s fitting that we have a holiday to honor the service members who come home and the ones who do not. And it’s fitting that on Veterans Day we stop for a moment to say thank you to the children of servicemembers. Whatever we might think about America’s current wars, whatever we might think about the use of force or the flexing of military muscle now or at any other time, the policies and actions of our government are not their doing. The consequences of those policies and actions are, however, another matter.
I wish I could say that on this Veteran’s Day, the nation would pledge that fathers and mothers in military service would not be deployed so often or so long. I wish I could say that we pledge to make sure that whenever families have to move, children don’t lose ground in school. I wish I could say that everyone who meets military children will say how proud they are of them and their deployed parents instead of wondering aloud why in the world anyone would want to do the things soldiers are sometimes called upon to do. I wish I could say that if their parents come home wounded in heart and body that the help they and their families need will be there. I wish I could say that there is no need to be afraid or depressed. I wish I could say our wars will end honorably and soon. I wish I could say that whatever comes, we as a nation will not forget them.
I am glad I am getting to know military children a little better in the months I have been blogging at Xanthe’s World. It's a means, however small, to try to be there for these often overlooked young people who fight their own battles because their parents have been called to fight ours. Veterans Day is not a holiday associated with resolutions, but that doesn't mean it can't be. Please join me, if you are among the 98 percent unaffected personally by this war, in finding your own way to serve too.
Posted by About AART at 6:20 AM

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