Little Soldier Girl "Didn't Want to Let Go"

NBC Philadelphia ^ | October 7, 2009 | VINCE LATTANZIO

[flutters]

LOVE

[outlawjake]

She probably has heard about the new ROE...

[Tennessee Nana]

Awwwwwwwwwwww

Poor little sweetheart...

[ltc8k6]

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=159986

Give the local paper the hits...

[GeronL]

Thats very cute

[paul51]

Our heroes and their families are making sacrifices everyday while our so called leaders are trashing the country and the constitution while enriching themselves and the rest of america is shopping at the mall and watching tv. Just sickening.

[murphE]

[tears]

[JMJJR]

I don’t think I’ve ever been so moved by a picture.

Thanks for the post.

[marine86297]

How about a friggin tissue alert!!!!

I remember when I left for DS and Somalia. My son didn't know who I was when I got back from D/S and it took him a few hours to warm back up to me after Somalia.

Children, I think, suffer the most during deployment but they bounce back well. My son is now in the process of trying to get into the MC Officer program at Purdue.

When I ask why... He tells me he "feels it is his duty just like you did your duty dad"

[antiRepublicrat]

To anybody who doesn’t think being an Army family is a hard job. And it had to hurt for that soldier to finally let go of his daughter’s hand.

[flutters]

You’re welcome. It’s very touching.

[flutters]

Thank you for your service. It sounds like your son is a fine young man. Good job!

[fredhead]

In 20 years in the Navy I saw a lot of that. Six month deployments and tearful separations on the pier. About a year ago one of my former Boy Scouts, himself now a First Class Petty Officer on one of the ships, was leaving on a deployment. The local news showed his six-year old son on the pier in tears waving goodbye to his daddy.

I got the link and e-mailed it to my friend.

On the other hand, there is also the (happy) tear-filled reunions in the pier.

This is what our military is sacrificing for our freedom. Along with their lives, and even if they come out of it seemingly unscathed, their health. 20 years in the Navy (10 on aircraft carriers) and I suffer from pronounced loss of hearing and recurring asthma and bronchitis. And retirees don’t get hearing aids in our lifetime medical benefits.

[ArrogantBustard]

Our heroes and their families are making sacrifices everyday

The sacrifices made by their families go largely unnoticed ... thank you for remembering that.

the rest of america is shopping at the mall

I've objected to that before, and I'll object to it again. It's a sweeping generalization, and it's wrong.

[Spok]

Don’t feel sorry for her-dad is giving her, by example, a legacy of pride, character and honor.

[stevie_d_64]

Yeah, this stuff just kills me...

I remember being single, and ready for our deployments, ready and eager to get going...The married guys were always the last ones to get onboard, and in my opinion rightfully so...

We be gone for 6-7 months, and when we got back those same married guys were on deck ready for the gangway to be secured...

After things got settled down, I remember us single guys (that didn’t have the duty that first night back) we’d go ashore with a bag of dirty laundry, and looking forward to some good food and a nice tall glass of ice cold milk...

Ahhhhh, memories!!!

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[LeonardFMason]

.....while Obama calculates the politics.

[TChris]

Very touching.

Thanks for that.

[reagan_fanatic]

Aww. God, that broke my heart.

I have a four year-old little girl, and it would just kill me inside to have to do that to her.

[rawhide]

Awwwww shucks!

[rawhide]

Abby Bennethum A family photo that shows a little girl beside her father and his fellow soldiers in uniform as they prepare to go to war has resonated well beyond the tight knit Bennethum clan.

Four-year-old Paige Bennethum really, really didn't want her daddy to go to Iraq.

So much so, that when Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum lined up in formation at his deployment this July, she couldn't let go.

No one had the heart to pull her away.

[WOSG]

A reminder of who they are fighting for.

PING

[rawhide]

The commanding officer allowed Paige to say goodbye as her dad prepared to ship off from Fort Dix.

Paige's mom Abby captured the moment with her camera and her aunt passed the image along to a Berks County, Pa. newspaper.

"I’ve had strangers looking me up online, sending me messages that they are touched by it ... offering a lot of support," Abby Bennethum told NBCPhiladelphia.

The picture took on a life of its own online this week. Abby says that suddenly, people were knocking on her door. "Literally overnight, there's all these people that just want to do anything they can," she says. Though she says her husband hasn't seen any stories about his family yet, he expects to.

For her part, Paige still remembers how she felt that day in July. Looking at the picture of herself – her dad now overseas – Paige remembers, "I didn't want to let go of him."

She calls the work he does transporting supplies across the Iraqi border, "just nice."

But that doesn't change her feelings.

"I just miss my dad right now," she says.

Sgt. Bennethum, 30, is expected home next July. Until then, Paige plans to help her mom take care of her little sister and a new baby that's on the way

[mom aka the evil dictator]

Thirty eight years ago I saw my Dad off to Vietnam. I cried like a baby. Late last night I saw my youngest child off to Iraq for the second time. I never let him see me cry, but I wanted so much to be like that little girl. My heart breaks for her because I understand why my son is going and it doesn’t make the facts any easier.

[ASOC]

The first time is hard, the second time is a horror - but you learn to keep that to yourself.

ANd ship cookies / hard candie for the squad every other week....

[mom aka the evil dictator]

If I ship anymore stuff than I shipped last time I will single-handedly remove the Postal Service from the red ink they are drowning in! I have been given my orders (children love to do that) about what and how much I am allowed to send. I have 5 boxes packed already and will probably have more before he even lets me know when it is okay to start shipping. I just keep telling him to SHARE!

[ASOC]

LOL

We quickly learned to use the Priority mail boxes (flat fee) and to fill the ‘loose space’ with hard candy - when the box left, it was FULL.

If you don’t mind, we’ll add your son to our prayer list.

[mom aka the evil dictator]

Please do add him to your prayer list. I know God is looking out for him and them. I gave him over to God before he left. Doesn’t mean I don’t worry, I just know that he is safe whether on earth or elsewhere.
Love the flat rate boxes. I work for those people so I have an endless supply. Amazing what you can stuff in one.