Children of service members have to bear the burden of military life just as much as their parents.  With every transfer of duty station they must change schools, meet new friends, find new activities, start over.  The life of a military child is not an easy one.  With the fast pace of military deployments today, the challenges facing the children of our troops have multiplied.  Now they must endure long deployments and cope with the absence of one of their parents for months at a time.   

Children of all ages are being asked to deal with an incredible level of stress and uncertainty.  Younger children may not understand why their daddy or mommy has suddenly disappeared.  The concept of time is hard to understand so the reassurance that they will return in seven months is cold comfort to a small child who just wants her daddy back.  Older children who have an understanding of war and the danger it implies may have the worry and anxiety that accompanies having a loved one if a combat zone.    

Military families are being asked every day to make sacrifices for this country.  Just as our troops are asked to leave home, spend months in a foreign land and put their lives in danger, their loved ones are making countless small sacrifices to support those deployments.  But now someone is stepping up to provide some special support for the children of our deployed service members. 

Operation Purple is an organization that provides free summer camps for children of deployed service members.  This year, Operation Purple will run more than forty weeks of camps at thirty six locations in twenty four states.  Not only do these camps provide a fun experience for military children, but they also provide tools to help these children better cope with the burdens of deployment.  Operation Purple children learn coping skills and make friends who understand what they’re going through. 

When men and women join the armed forces, they understand the choice they have made.  They sign to serve this country.  The children of our troops didn’t sing up for this life, they didn’t ask to go through the worry and fear of watching a parent go to war.  The military life is thrust upon them.  Operation Purple is an organization that sees the extraordinary demands made on military children and is trying to offer some measure of gratitude to the truly unsung heroes of our military.