On October 6, 2005, a roadside bomb near Falluja, Iraq took the life of 19-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Jason Frye of Landisburg, Perry County. Last month, officials named the Enlistment Oath Ceremony Room at the Harrisburg Military Entrance Processing Station in Lower Allen Township in Frye's memory. His mother Connie says she is "humbled" by the honor. "I have stood and watched two more ceremonies there," Connie recalls. "I walk over and shake their hand and thank them for their service. And I tell them if it wouldn't be for the brave men like them, we would lose our rights as 'One Nation under God' ... We lose our rights without them. Many, many people have tried to bring America to her knees but as long as we have these young men and these young women willing to do this, they will never bring us to our knees. It will never happen."
Still, Connie says she also warns the newly enlisted men and women that there are no guarantees about their personal journey. "And that's exactly what I told those guys and girls down there. I had two sons that served in the Marine Corps. One came back. One did not. Your chances are basically 50-50," she adds.
On August 13, 2004, 23-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Nick Morrisondied when a roadside bomb exploded while he was on patrol in the Al Anbar province south of Falluja. The Newville, Cumberland County native had been in Iraq for just four months. His mother Peggy appeared on Smart Talk three years ago and told me, "He was a good kid. He was a jokester. He loved to get the guys together and tell funny stories ... but he was a hard worker and ... loved to help people." Peggy said Nick joined the Marines after the September 11th terrorist attacks. "There was a lady at his funeral who got up and spoke and said when 9/11 hit, he was going around the store and he was angry and she said you would have thought they bombed his mom and dad's house ... that triggered a lot of it. ... He loved his country," she explained.
Peggy is part of a group of midstate mothers who have joined a national effort to make a flag honoring fallen military men and women a national symbol. The non-profit group American Gold Star Mothers works to preserve the memory of sons and daughters who died in service. The Gold Star Mothers want the "Honor and Remember" flag to be recognized as a national emblem to be flown beneath the American flag at government buildings and military installations. The flag memorializes fallen troops from the Revolutionary War to today and all Gold Star Mothers receive one in tri-fold. State and federal lawmakers are considering the measure.
Peggy Morrison also supports the Wreaths Across America campaign to place wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery and at the gravesites of fallen service members around the country.
"I won't say I've reached a peace with Nick's death," Peggy tells me. "But I have reached a strength that I didn't know I had until my son's death. There are times I thank him everyday for the strength he has given me. You never get closure but you do get more peaceful with it. I want to make my son as proud of me as I am of him."
With two wars underway and tens of thousands of American troops committed to missions around the globe, we focus this week's Smart Talk on the Impact of War. Our country's involvement in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan sends shockwaves that reverberate through families, schools, businesses, places of worship and all levels of government. They touch virtually every aspect of our community life. We are a nation of citizen-soldiers ... men and women called to duty who leave their families and jobs for a time to serve their country. Some of them come back. Some of them never do. And some of those who return are greatly altered emotionally, physically, spiritually by what they have undergone and witnessed in the field of combat. Their families and communities bear the scars and sacrifies of their deployment, as well. We owe this country's volunteer corps of servicemen and women and their families a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.
WITF, in partnership with National Public Radio and other public radio stations around the state, is producing a series of reports called the Impact of War. The series details the effect the deployment of 4,000 Pennsylvania National Guard troops in Iraq has on them, their families and their communities. Scott Detrow, a reporter for WITF-FM 89.5 and Harrisburg bureau chief for Public Radio Capitol News, leaves next month for a three-week stay in Iraq with the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team based in Camp Taji, about 20 miles north of Baghdad. The 56th deployed to Iraq in January after spending four months training at Fort Indiantown Gap and then at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. They are scheduled to return to the U.S. in September.
Women in War - those three words can touch off fiery debates about the proper role of females in the military service. The fact is that women have played a pivotal role in establishing and defending American democracy since the Revolutionary War.
Central PA magazine's May issue contains a fascinating story that chronicles the experiences of four women currently in the military. Two of them, U.S. Army Col. Christine Stark and Major Laura McHugh join us on TV this week. Stark enlisted in the Army in 1982 and rose in the ranks from military policing to serving as provost marshal in Bosnia and then as an advisor to the American commander in Afghanistan for eight months in 2008. She spent four years teaching at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle and recently began a stint as chief of staff for the Army National Guard in Arlington, Virginia. Col. Stark's twin 20-year-old sons now serve overseas. One is in Iraq and the other is in Afghanistan and her husband is a retired Army colonel. Military duty is all in this family.
Be sure to join us at 8:30 tonight for Smart Talk, and again on Saturday at noon. You can share a comment or question with us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
