Very early this morning, one of our nephews boarded a flight to California where he will join his older brother. They are two members of the same Marine unit and after training out west will deploy in August to, most likely, Afghanistan.

The older of the two has seen combat before. In 2005, while serving in Iraq, he lost 22 fellow Marines and one Navy Corpsman…out of the 160 who deployed with him. This unit suffered one of the greatest losses in the war. When our nephew made it home safely, I cried every time I saw him for quite some time.

Since then, he got married, had a son and his younger brother decided to follow in his footsteps. Now there are two of them going off to fight. Two children of the same mother and father who are some of the strongest parents I know.

I know that every other Marine is considered family, but I’m happy they have each other too. I am already counting the days until I can cry tears of joy because of their safe return.

I was going to end this by saying, “Be safe, boys”, but that wouldn’t be right. They are men. They are brave and strong and I’m glad they are on our side.

I’m proud to know them and call them family.

Semper Fi.

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