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When soldiers reconnect with children they hardly know

May-21-2008 » Filed Under: 2nd SCR

2nd SCR soldier profiled in the following story.

By JUSTIN PAPROCKI, McClatchy Newspapers

HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- The first time Army specialist Brian Morel held his daughter was in the Savannah International Airport. He took the 7-month-old from his wife's arms and hoisted her above his head - he in the subdued greens and tans of Army fatigues, and she in a pink and white jumper.

"Hi, there," he said, raising his voice an octave.

She didn't squirm.

Later, he'd recall that he wasn't sure what to expect that first time.

He had been searching for feelings about Sophia. He knew what it was like to hold his wife, Sarah. He knew what it was like to hold his 6-year-old son, Aiden. He knew what it was like to love them. But before March 24, Brian only knew photos of the newborn child with bright blue eyes.

When he lifted Sophia as fellow passengers filtered around him, that feeling changed.

"As soon as I held her, I fell in love," he said.

Brian Morel, 31, is one of the 600,000 active duty military who have children, according to the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University. More than 40 percent of the total number enlisted have kids. But like the rest of his fellow parent soldiers, Brian has two families. There's his "military family," as he calls it: the men and women he serves with in the Fires Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Camp Taji north of Baghdad. And there's his family back home.

Arriving in Savannah in March, Brian started his 18-day leave. He was in the middle of a 15-month deployment in Iraq. He had not seen his family for the past seven months. During that time, Sophia was born and his family moved from a military station in Germany back to his wife's home town: Hilton Head Island, S.C. [...]


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