What is the one fear every significant other has? Deployment. We all have, or will all have, the thought 'What if he doesn't come home?' When Joshua actually said "Yeah, I want to look into the Air Force," on Memorial Day last year, that was my first thought. Deployments. Worries, fears. Watching CNN and hearing that an Air Base was attacked and Airmen died, and wondering if it was Joshua. Or being a widow in my late 20s. In the matter of seconds, the fear washed over me, and he wasn't even enlisted yet. I wasn't even married to him yet (still not, but I digress).
So I can't even imagine those who are married, with young children, with Soldiers, Seamen, Marines and Airmen deployed, praying that their husbands and wives make it back home to them. But the fear is there for me, as it probably is in every significant other.
Mind you, it's not just us significant others worrying. Mothers, fathers, grandparents and siblings, as well as aunts, uncles and cousins. Entire families worry about their loved ones who are deployed. The grim reality is we can lose them when they're protecting our freedoms. A brave, honorable way to die, but still, it is losing them.
We aren't at war, but we still have deployments in the Middle East. We still lose people, even though we aren't at war. So until every one of our Armed Forces are returned home to us, we wear red. It symbolizes the bloodshed. Until there is no more bloodshed, until they are back on American soil, in our arms, we wear red to remember all who are deployed.
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