Ron and Tereasa Todd's son Joe is a marine deployed somewhere in Iraq. Joe, a 2002 graduate of Homer High School, is driving a light armored vehicle with a security platoon attached to a group of forward Marine commanders, Ron said.
"We are definitely very nervous about this," he said Tuesday night at his house on the Old Sterling Highway. "But we are also very proud of him. Like everybody else says, our prayers are with him and we want him to come home soon."
At Barr Gray's house, the latest word from the Persian Gulf comes from the computer, newspapers, the radio and the television simultaneously.
Specifically she yearns to see a photo or video clip of her 18-year-old son Ryan Buster, a private in the 82nd.
"Any time I see the 82nd, I'm praying I see him," Gray said Tuesday afternoon as she took a break from the news to visit her sister, Earla. "I'm even looking for an ear. I'd recognize an ear."
A picture on the front page of Friday's Anchorage Daily News showed soldiers of the 82nd Airborne, wide eyes peering out from behind gas masks after a missile attack alert at Camp Champion. Another picture showed soldiers of the 82nd dressed in their bio-chem suits and gas masks sprinting for bomb shelters during the same warning.
Gray said she hadn't seen the photos, but was eager to see if any of the eyes or ears in those pictures belonged to Ryan.
Gray is justifiably overwhelmed by the whirlwind process of having her first-born child graduate from the Alaska Military Youth Academy in Anchorage, enlist in the army, complete basic training and ship off to a war in Iraq, all in the span of less than 10 months.
"It was a shock for him to want to join the military," Gray said. "I'm not necessarily anti-government, but I would never have wanted to steer my kids toward the service.
"But believe me, I'm very patriotic now."
The Grays and Todds are two of at least a dozen families on the lower Kenai Peninsula with sons or daughters in, or likely headed for, the Persian Gulf region.
In searching for ways to constructively occupy her time, Gray has reached out to other military mothers and families. She said she found that the Internet has changed the way family members of soldiers cope during wartime.
She is now a member of an online chat group for mothers of soldiers of the 82nd Airborne.
Gray said after she discovered all the online support groups, she joined a bunch of them, but quickly found her e-mail inbox overrun with messages. A woman she'd never met, a marine mother, asked if she could send Ryan cookies.
"It's pretty amazing," Gray said. "It's like another family."
Hoping to establish a support group locally, Gray has placed a personal item in the Homer News asking to hear from anybody in the area with family members in the military.
Sitting at her sister's kitchen table, wearing a sweater adorned with military pins and a yellow ribbon, Gray produced a list containing the names of anyone she's discovered from the Homer area who is currently serving in the armed forces.
She said she intends to write each of them and send out care packages.
"Pillows are a big item," she said.
Moments later, Earla came forward, producing a pair of small pillows for her sister to send off to Kuwait.
The Todds were quick to point out that the local chapters of Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion have been a big source of support.
"The Anchor Point VFW has been very supportive of Joe," Ron Todd said.
As she sat talking with her sister and her friend Tami Houston Tuesday afternoon, Gray's eyes shined with the weary expression of a woman who has experienced a full range of intense emotions in rapid succession.
Tears are never far off, she said.
"Mostly I can hold them back, but sometimes it's just overwhelming," she added.
For a moment, she did not hold back as she tearfully described seeing some of Ryan's former classmates playing basketball at Homer High School. The scene jarred her when she imagined what her son might have been doing at that particular moment.
Despite their fears, Gray and her partner Andy Armstrong acknowledged their pride in Ryan's choice, which they said helped him steer clear of many of the pitfalls that claim kids Ryan's age.
"He was on the verge," Earla said, speaking of the drug and alcohol problems that too often trouble American teens.
Like many other parents of servicemen and women, Gray said she worries about how the peace movement might be perceived by her son, struggling with the idea that he might feel unsupported or, worse still, alienated from society upon his return home.
"We all want peace," she said passionately. "But these are young kids. They're not hearing awe don't want war,' they just see that (protesters) don't support what they are doing.
"I just wish this would all go away."
Earla's kitchen, hung with one picture of Elvis Presley and another of Jerry Garcia, swirled with talk of how people could bridge the gap that divides those who would demonstrate against the war and those who would rally in support of U.S. troops.
Houston, who admitted that she had been standing up with the Women in Black in a local vigil for peace, said that she thought it was important that "we support and love our troops."
"We are not judging their actions," Houston added. "What those boys are doing is their job."
Out on Pioneer Avenue on Monday afternoon, the Women in Black were joined on their usual Lake Street corner by a throng waving American flags and shouting its support for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Many of those holding patriotic flags said it was time to put away politics and rally behind the men and women fighting in Iraq.
Some held portraits of family members in military uniform.
"I don't feel like any of us are against each other," said Deanna Chesser, whose son Davin, 21, is with the Air Force and set for deployment to the Middle East. "But I feel very strongly that we have to support our troops regardless of what we think about this war."
As for her own feelings on the subject, Chesser was quite clear in her resolve.
"I'm willing to give my son for this," she said evenly. "That's how important this is. That's how important freedom is."
Sepp Jannotta can be reached at sjannotta@homernews.com.
Sitting on her bed, Gray does her best to take it all in as she searches for any glimpse of the Army's 82nd Airborne, which is currently based at Camp Champion in northern Kuwait.
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