Idaho's Real-Life Brothers-in-Arms [View All]

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/15/brothers.in.arms/index.html

(CNN) -- As the war in Iraq stretches on, American military families feel a mixture of pride and anxiety that comes with having a loved one in a combat zone. The family of Leon and Tammy Pruett knows those feelings four times over.

The Pruetts have four sons serving in combat in Iraq. Eric, Evan, Greg and Jeff are completing an 18-month tour of duty in Iraq with the Army National Guard. Leon and the couple's fifth son Eren are just back from Iraq, and daughter Emily would have gone but had not completed her training when her brothers shipped out.

Why would one family be willing to risk so much for the war in Iraq? The Pruetts feel it is their duty to serve, that other people in the world have a right to some of the freedoms and privileges Americans have. And, as Tammy Pruett says, "If not my sons, then whose?"