rapidfire
A Mother’s Love MilLife Connection
I
n celebration of Mother’s Day, MOAA talked with Robin Carpenter, mother of Medal of Honor recipient Cpl.
Kyle Carpenter, USMC (Ret), as she reflect- ed on Kyle’s service. Excerpts of the inter- view, edited for clarity and space, follow. How did you feel when Kyle joined the Marine Corps? He told me right out of high school that he might want to join the Marine Corps. He went to college in the fall, and he came home at Christmas. Kyle, he had a lot of respect for us, he wanted our blessing. His mind was made up, but he did want our blessing. [He told us] “I do not want to live with regret.” Here he is in the middle of a war and wanting to go infantry. [His father] Jim and I offered up everything we could think of [to dissuade him]: “Go find yourself in Key West. Go to Colorado and go [join] ski patrol.” All we could think about was his safety. A lot of how I felt about [him joining] was just my [civil- ian] background. Once we accepted it, and he had our blessing, and then he went ahead and signed all the paperwork, there was no way we were not going to support him. What did you expect going into Kyle’s Afghanistan deployment? Kyle had a couple of predeployment meetings at Camp Lejeune [N.C.]. They kind of tell you what’s going to happen if they die. We thought he would either come back fine or he wouldn’t come back alive. I never knew about all the amputees who were coming back. Nobody
16 MILITARY OFFICER MAY 2017
prepared us for what would happen if your child was injured. How did you feel when he was receiving the citation? To be honest, still to this day, it’s just still pretty surreal, I think because of what we’ve been through … because we were so focused on his injury. It was just so emotional. For us, because we have lived this injury and recovery, we’re so proud of how he’s handled his injury and recovery. As a parent, [its difficult to comprehend] your child [having] the responsibility [of receiving the medal] for the rest of his life. What’s your message to military fami- lies on Moth- er’s Day? Now that I’ve been
around so many military families, I have so much respect for ... the sacrifice. I can’t think of a greater gift that a military mem- ber can give their child than getting to see that life of service. To read this interview in its entirety, along with more from mothers of Medal of Honor recipients, visit
www.moaa.org/ medalofonormothers.
— Amanda Miller IMAGES: ABOVE LEFT AND TOP, COURTESY ROBIN CARPENTER; ABOVE RIGHT, MILITARY ONESOURCE
Family Matters
Discover helpful resources for military spouses and children.
Getting out of the mili- tary — whether sepa- rating or retiring — can be a difficult process for the entire family. Did you know
Military OneSource is available as a resource for you and your family during this stressful time? In addition to
extensive online re- sources, confidential counseling and assis- tance remain available for up to six months after military separa- tion or retirement. This includes nonmedical counseling, career and financial counseling, and specialty consul- tation on a variety of subjects, as well as a new website with tran- sition content. For more informa- tion, visit
www.mil itaryonesource.mil.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92