The Hidden Home Front

The loved ones of U.S. service members have always learned to adapt, but deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq are testing their resiliency.

July 07, 2009|By Carolyn Davis, Inquirer Staff Writer
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  • Terri Tarricone - the wife of Michael Tarricone, an Army National Guard captain who recently returned from Iraq - with sons John (left) and Miles at their home in Manahawkin, N.J.
Terri Tarricone - the wife of Michael Tarricone, an Army National Guard captain who…
  • Terri Tarricone - the wife of Michael Tarricone, an Army National Guard captain who recently returned from Iraq - with sons John (left) and Miles at their home in Manahawkin, N.J.
  • Gabriela Prete with her children - newborn Nylah Prete, 4-year-old Arianna Prete, and 13-year-old Gene Sewell - last week in their Norristown home.
  • Rick Prete, a sergeant with the Pennsylvania National Guard, was in Iraq when his daughter was born last week.He used Facebook to keep in touch with his wife at Norristown's Montgomery Hospital.
  • Capt. Michael Tarricone, recently back from Iraq, is making up for his absence now. He attended his son Miles' junior ROTC graduation and will personally deliver his wife's anniversary gift.
  • Back home after two years in Iraq as a sergeant with the Army's 101st Airborne Division, Lila Guy (second from left) is joined by her family: children (from left) Leila, 8, Harrison, 9, Izayah, 5, and Lauryn, 8 months, and parents Genevieve and Gilbert Bruton. Guy and her husband separated during her deployment; being a long-distance couple was a problem.
  • Gabriela Prete looks at a photograph of her husband, Sgt. Rick Prete, that he sent while serving in Iraq with the Pennsylvania National Guard. With her in the couple's Norristown home are two of her children, Arianna Prete, 4, and Gene Sewell, 13.
  • Arianna Prete, 4, holds a photograph of her father - Sgt. Rick Prete, who is in Iraq with the Pennsylvania National Guard - outside the family's home.

First in an occasional series detailing the impact of war on military families.

It was B-day - baby day - for Rick and Gabriela Prete last week and they excitedly chatted as baby Nylah was about to be born.

The day was glorious for the couple and their two other children, except for one thing: Gabriela, 30, lay in the maternity ward of Norristown's Montgomery Hospital while Rick, 26, patrolled thousands of miles away at his combat outpost in Taji, Iraq.

Rick called Gabriela's cell phone periodically from a land line. But mostly they shared the big event through their now-preferred means of communication, Facebook over the Internet - Gabriela using a BlackBerry and Rick sitting at a desktop computer for their cyber chats.

Story continues below.

3:39 p.m. Gabriela: I'm gonna start pushing now. . . . Hopefully soon!!

3:48 p.m. Rick: GO BABY GO!!!!

4:08 p.m. Gabriela: She's here! Beautiful and perfect.

4:54 p.m. Rick: OMG ok im callin.

Rick, a sergeant with the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, posted a Facebook update the next day: "Just saw my newborn and heard her voice on skype!!! Get me out of Iraq NOW!"

The Pretes of Norristown, including their two other children, exemplify a cost of war that is largely overshadowed by the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan: the impact of deployment on military families.

Away from the public eye as the wars have faded from an early media crush, military families often feel the rumbles of the battlefield in their own homes. Among the most acutely affected are their children.

Deployments to the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since their beginnings have affected about two million military children, according to the Defense Department.

About 265,000 active, reserve, and National Guard service members currently are in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries that are part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Of that number, 18,544 members are from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, the Pentagon says. More than 47,000 children in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have at least one parent in uniform.

The higher numbers of mobilized National Guard members and reservists are an important facet of these missions. Their families live in communities scattered around the United States, often far from the services and support that military bases offer.

In a time of war, top brass naturally pays the greatest attention to what happens in the conflict zone.

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