While we were gone you did the real work.  You took care of the kids, maintained the car and the household, paid the bills. In short you kept it all together, and you did all this while you worried constantly about us. Maybe you were a wife or a husband, a grandparent, brother, sister. You are what kept us going. You took the burden off of us so we could do our jobs. I never realized just how strong my wife was until after we returned and I learned about my friend SFC John Baileys death.  While she must have thought her work was done now that I was home, without hesitation just as she did for our son throughout the deployment, she fought back her own tears while she wiped away mine. To all of you who stood by your soldier I say thank you. To my gorgeous wife Martha I will never be able to epxress just how grateful I am for having you in my life. To my daughters Stephanie and Selina thank you so much for helping mom and to my "Little Monkey" Steven thanks for being a good boy while  your dad was gone.