Military Community, Spouse and Family Resources - Military Times

Top military moms

There’s a saying in the ranks that goes something like this: “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

While more a warning than a tribute, the phrase speaks volumes. Mothers matter. But military moms are anything but selfish, their charges and spouses will surely testify. They are the mortar in a military family’s foundation.

Five such women qualified for Operation Homefront’s inaugural Military Motherhood Award, a tribute to all moms who manage to put their families first despite the frantic pace of military life. Operation Homefront is a nationwide support network for military families. Its online community for military wives and women in uniform, CinCHouse.com, provided the following accounts of these five finalists. The winner, Renee Garcia, was feted at a May 8 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

For more information, visit http://www.cinchouse.com. Here’s Garcia’s story and that of the other four nominees:

RENEE GARCIA

Renee Garcia knew she was representing thousands of other military moms as she accepted Operation Homefront’s inaugural Military Motherhood Award. “Military wives are amazing … inspiring,” she said, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

She described the family readiness group at Fort Campbell, Ky., as being “such a backbone” for her — calling just to see how she was doing while her husband, Sgt. Frank Garcia, is deployed to Afghanistan. Garcia, in turn, volunteers as a key caller, checking on other military spouses.

During the ceremony in Washington, Garcia’s 4-year-old daughter Kennedy whispered, “Mommy,” from her stroller, her eyes lighting up as her mother began to speak.

Garcia was nominated for the award by someone outside the military community — a chaplain at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who saw Garcia in action when Kennedy was being treated for Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.

“Renee showed me what it’s like to be a mother to four children, a friend to many others, and a wife to one remarkable man who currently serves in Afghanistan,” wrote Chaplain Khette Cox.

Kennedy was born with Down syndrome, and was diagnosed with leukemia last year, when Garcia was 8½ months pregnant.

Cox described how Garcia spent several months in the hospital room with Kennedy while caring for and nursing baby Keeghan, now 1.

All the while, she stayed in close touch with her other two kids, Kassidy, 8, and Kameron, 6, at home with Garcia’s mother, who came to stay with them.

Garcia said she plans to spend her $5,000 award money when her husband returns for his mid-tour R&R trip. He and the family will go to Philadelphia in July for Kennedy’s spinal fusion surgery.

The money will help pay for “some fun stuff for them to do with Frank while he is here,” she said. Fort Campbell has helped get their plane tickets, she said.

Her husband often tells her how proud he is of her, she said. “He told me I have to take at least some of the money and spend it on me,” she said.

— Karen Jowers

CAROLYN MAUPIN

It took four years to find Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin’s body on the outskirts of Baghdad. The 20-year-old Army reservist was kidnapped when his convoy was ambushed in March 2004. A video purportedly of his execution was deemed inconclusive by the Army, so Maupin’s mother, Carolyn, held out hope.

As she prayed for good news, she worked to offer hope for other military families. She and her husband, Keith, founded the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, which has shipped almost 10,000 care packages to troops.

“It’s amazing how many people you meet when you’re in this situation, but I can tell you it’s a continuous job,” Carolyn Maupin wrote via e-mail of her work since Matt’s disappearance. “The spotlight also kept Matt in the forefront and kept our troops in the hearts and minds of America and abroad.”

After Matt’s body was found in March, Carolyn’s younger son, Micah, re-enlisted in the Marines.

“When I saw him re-enlist, I realized he was not that young boy but a young man with a great responsibility,” she said. “It made me proud to be his mother because he wanted to keep his country safe and protect it for another four years.”

— Kerry McGinley, CinCHouse.com

COAST GUARD YN1 SARAH HESS

Recruiters told Coast Guard Yeoman 1st Class Sarah Hess that people like her, with only a General Educational Development certificate, never graduated boot camp, that they were not motivated.

But Hess, a single mother, graduated. And she is so motivated that she works every day to teach her daughter and other single military moms to believe in themselves.

Her daughter, Savannah, 8, has cerebral palsy and was told she would never walk. She does, with a walker. She has severe muscle spasms in her hands, but she is writing.

“My supervisors have always pushed me to work to get promoted, and I instill those same kinds of values in my daughter,” Hess said.

At work, Hess motivates other single mothers and created a babysitting co-op. When those around her say they can’t, she says they can.

“Being a woman in the military is hard in itself. There are going to be rough times, and there are going to be great times,” she said. “For me, being in the military as a woman and as a mother is probably, by far, one of my biggest accomplishments.”

— Allison Perkins, CinCHouse.com

JENNIFER LEHNEN

Jennifer Lehnen has served the military community for nine years, working tirelessly to meet the needs of others — and the special needs of her own family. A Navy wife and mother, Lehnen has one daughter and 4-year-old triplets. Born prematurely, the triplets faced long-term health conditions and medical problems. But her devotion to them has helped each child overcome the odds. Today, they are thriving.

Lehnen believes that, as a military spouse, she is called to give back to the military community. She spends thousands of hours volunteering in local and military service organizations, and has been named an official Navy ombudsman. She also managed to complete her master’s degree and uses her skills as a speech pathologist to provide free speech therapy to military children.

She admits her greatest challenge is dealing with deployment, but she meets this head-on by giving her time and compassion to other military families dealing with deployments. Service is what Lehnen does. It is what she hopes to inspire in others and in her children.

— Tranette Ledford, CinCHouse.com

MISTY BRANDON-GNANN

Misty Brandon-Gnann lives by a motto she once heard: “Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.”

This motto serves her in the challenges she faces as a Marine Corps spouse of five years and mother of two children. It also serves her in the struggle she has faced since losing her eyesight three years ago. Brandon-Gnann laughs about it now, telling people she simply misplaced it. But her blindness is not correctable, and she cannot receive a transplant.

She has received training to adapt to her new life and has returned to school to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She is an active volunteer in programs that assist military families at Christmas, and she has created an ongoing clearinghouse to connect military families in need with local resources and services.

Brandon-Gnann also works with victims of domestic violence, helping them document their experiences so that they can pursue their cases in court. She plans to earn a doctorate in law so she can further assist families and victims of violence.

— Tranette Ledford, CinCHouse.com

DISCUSS: The nominees and other worthy moms