At camp, military kids bear scars of their own

[unhappycamper]

At camp, military kids bear scars of their own
By Andrea Stone - USA Today
June 2007


SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — Twilight fell over the mountain camp as the group formed a circle to trade war stories: the nightmares of battle that wake them in their sleep. The fighting. The pain. The surgeries. And always, the sudden mood swings.

“Sometimes, we feel like we have to run away,” Alex Cox says.

“The military’s stupid!” Adam Briggs declares.

Alex, 13, and Adam, 12, have never been to war, but are no strangers to the ravages it can inflict. Their fathers were injured in Iraq. Like the 13 other boys and girls ages 7 to 14 at an unusual summer camp this week for children of injured troops, they belong to a generation indelibly marked by war.

Nearly 19,000 U.S. children have had a parent injured in the military since Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon says. They are lucky compared with the 2,200 kids whose parents have been killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. But as the U.S. approaches its sixth year at war, the impact of battlefield injuries and frequent deployments on troops’ families — not just the troops themselves — is increasingly clear.

“Wounded service members have wounded family members,” says Michelle Joyner of the National Military Family Association, which runs the camp.


Rest of article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-20-camp-cover_N.htm