Local military families honor their Veterans
Jennifer Oakley of Traverse City has two sons in the military: Ben, who wanted to join the army ever since he was 8 years old... And BJ, who just signed up when he turned 30. "He went through jump school, he's in the 82nd Airborne in North Carolina at Fort Bragg. And Ben's based at Fort Hood but currently he's deployed to Camp Taji in Iraq, his second tour of duty there."
That makes for a lot of tense moments for this military mom. One of the scarier times - February of 2007, when Ben's best friend and cousin, Justin Paton of Alanson, was killed in a firefight in Iraq. Ben carried Paton away and then returned to the battle which lasted for several more days. Jennifer says "all of them were wounded, one more guy was killed in the platoon. They fought for 5 hours and held off 70-80 insurgents before they were rescued."
Despite his injuries, Ben wanted to press on. "I was pretty alarmed, as a Mom. I was like, 'Are you sure you're ready to go back?' And he said 'Mom, I'm the best of of all of them. I was the least wounded.... You have to go back, we can't lose the ground we gained.' You can't argue with that as a mom."
Technology makes the days go by a little easier. "To me I go online to Facebook or MySpace and see he's been online today, I dont' even have to hear from him, but if I know he's been communicating with somebody that's okay with me."
Ben Weber is still driving armored vehicles in Iraq. Now on his 2nd tour of duty, that's why his mom says Veterans Day is more important with each passing year. "Let them know you appreciate them. This is an important day for these guys. This is a big day for them, so whatever we can do to make them feel special is needed. I'm putting my shout out on my Facebook page, hey everybody it's Veterans Day, and make sure, little hints, here's Ben's address, he loves chocolate chip cookies."The Benghauser family agrees. Their daughter Laurel joined the Army when she was just 17. Her mom, Bensie, says "she was smart enough to realize she needed to do something positive with her life." So with her parents blessing - and signature - the 17 year old joined the Army in 2004. But when her unit was not deployed - Laurel left the army and joined the National Guard. "That's what she wanted to do, she kept asking to be deployed even when she was in Germany... Because that unit wasn't deploying, she switched to the 49th so she could. "
Now Laurel Benghauser is working in human resources at Camp Liberty - where they're training Iraqis to become police officers. Her mom says, "they're sweet cute little children and you have no idea of what their final outcome is going to be, and what their character turns out to be." Laurel's Dad says, "I can't, can't imagine my little girl serving in that way, wanting to protect her, and just a touching thing for me. "
Bensie says, "We're so proud of her and we love her very much, and we pray for her every day and for everyone over there and their safety. And that they'll return home safely, and that they will be able to help the Iraqi people."
Jennifer Oakley also turns to prayer and to a higher power for her faith. "There's a lot of peace in knowing that what he's doing is the right place for him to be right now, so if anything should happen to him I still know he's in God's hands and that's a safe place to be as a mom."
