Please Be Respectful To Others

DAY 6
When we have loved ones in the Military we know there are risks. We know that they are put in harms way to protect our freedoms. We know there are injuries, and lives are lost. We have to live with those fears every single day whether they are at their base or in Country.

There are reasons the Military notifies families of the injured or deceased prior to making the information public knowledge. That is out of respect for the service member and the grieving family. There are also reasons the Military asks everyone affiliated not to share sensitive information and have adopted OPSEC. So many times I have seen the rules violated. I will be honest, I have violated the rules a time or two without thinking. I have always had to opportunity to go back and fix my mistake by simply deleting the post. People need to be more careful. Our Military is vulnerable and there are people out there that will do anything they can with the information to try and bring them down. So lets all learn to be a little more careful with what we say.

My rant tonight has a purpose believe it or not. I know first hand being a Marine mom has its ups and downs. We are fearful of our Marine getting injured and/or worse. When we hear of an injured or fallen Marine it digs deep into our bones even if we do not personally know the Marine or his/her family. Our senses are heightened when we hear the word deployment, and our fears become bigger than we are. We have our children to love, protect, and to raise them into the best adults humanly possible. When they are born, we do not know the path they will choose in life. We have no idea they will join the Military until they induct us into the conversation later in their teen years into young adulthood. That does not stop our natural instincts to protect with all our might. When they hurt, we hurt. When they pass away, a piece of us goes with them. And that brings me to what I came here to say. I am sorry if this gets under the skin of some people, but this is just the way it is.

We are at WAR. Our children are being sent into this war because they chose to serve our Country. We know some will get sick. We know some will get hurt. We know some will perish. We live with this fear every single day from the day they leave to fly over to that god forsaken place until the day they return back on US soil. We pray for them every single moment. Parents and loved ones post Prayer requests for their sons, daughters, friends, and so on. Once posted we follow suit and answer the call to send prayers. What we do not need is details. We do not need to know how many have been injured, we do not need to know how many have fallen. If the family posts a prayer request with specific details leave the details with them. If they ask for you to post a prayer request to all you know, post the necessary information to pass on as in the  specific service member barring last name and the Unit that needs prayers. They ALL need prayers right now.  They have their lives on the line. As a parent with a son over there right now, when I see specific information it tears me to pieces. That could have been my son. When I hear of a service member perishing, it kills me. I get the updates from the DOD. I know on a daily basis just what is going on over there. I am not the only mother that feels this way. We ALL feel this way. I do not understand why specifics are needed to ask people to pray. Please be respectful for all of these families. We have enough to deal with by knowing they are over there. We KNOW they are getting hurt. We KNOW they are perishing. We do not need it thrust in our faces with specifics. Follow OPSEC rules. If people keep publishing all this information that is considered sensitive information the Military will pull the plug on any information being sent out by any of our men and women. If you want to have contact with your service member, rules better start getting followed by everyone, and that includes me.

Below is a sample of a template post that I found for a prayer request for an injured or a fallen service member.

Please pray for the family of  ____service member no last name__ they need our prayers.
or
Please pray for the quick recovery of ___service member no last name__ . He/she and their family could use our prayers.

That is all we need to know. So lets be a little more respectful for all of our friends out there that have loved ones serving over seas, there is no reason we should cause them anymore pain and grief than what they are already going through.

I am off my soap box now!