Family! Salutes MILITARY MOMS By Aloise Schmitt L
oving, comforting, instructing, cooking, cleaning—these are all just part of a mom’s job description. Working, sacrificing, learning, fighting, protecting—this is how a sailor in the United States Navy serves our country each day.
Imagine being responsible for every aspect of both of these incredible jobs, and doing them well. Tat is what moms in the
military do each and every day. No weekends, no overtime—all out of love for their families and country. Tis Mother’s Day, Family! wants all military moms to know that we appreciate their hard work and sacrifices in this heartfelt salute to some of our local heroic moms.
LT. RACHEL JENKINS Lieutenant (Lt.) Rachel Jenkins, 27,
is a surface warfare officer at Naval Station Mayport. She and her husband Chris have two daughters, Addison, 3, and Elsie, almost 1. Rachel completed her five years of active duty in May 2013.
Rachel says a big challenge for
military moms is juggling motherhood with day-to-day job responsibilities. “For example, you’re on a ship, and you have to stand duty every six days, so that’s an overnight away.” Ten there is deployment. Rachel says her daughter, who was still a baby when she deployed, doesn’t remember much about their
separation—“You’re always more traumatized than they are!” She stayed in contact with her family as much as she could, and also found it helpful to keep a journal. “I tried to write something positive that happened that day and something to look forward to the next day.”
At home, Rachel enjoys time with
her family and tries to spend a few minutes each day relaxing. She advises other military moms not to be hard on themselves about their jobs. “It’s an instinct to feel guilty for being away, and you sort of have to take a step back and say, Look, there’s nothing you can do about
YNCS DONNA
DANIELS Senior chief yeoman (YNCS) Donna
Daniels, 49, is the lead chief petty officer of her squadron’s administration department at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. She has been married for five years to her husband James and has a 10- year-old son, Jalen, and two stepdaughters, Deshonnie, 15, and Felicia, 20.
Donna has served in the military for 23
years and five deployments, which she says is the hardest part about being a military mom, especially when her children were young. “With my son, I first deployed when he was 3, for eight months.” Jalen was too young for email—the main source
this. In the end, your kids are going to be proud of what you do. Tey’re not going to blame you. So my advice would be just to be easy on yourself and be proud.”
of communication between deployed sailors and their families—but Donna found ways to keep in touch. “His father would send me pictures, and then when I had the chance [I would] call him on weekends, just to let him hear my voice.”
Despite challenges, Donna feels her
children have benefitted from the military lifestyle. “I’m very proud of them. I think they can adjust to change [and] having to move and go to different schools…and I think that’s good.” As for her, she adjusts with the support of family, friends and her husband. “If you want to succeed, you have to have a good support system…that’s the biggest thing, right there.”
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