who is your hometown hero?
Who is your hero? I met mine in May of 1998. He was fresh from Basic Training and I was coming out of my freshman year at LSU. A series of odd events brought him to my dorm room on the very day I was packing up for the summer. It took one afternoon to convince me that I'd found "the one". I have really great instincts. We were married in September of 2003, had our first baby in September of 2004 during flight school in Fort Rucker, AL. In 2008, he was deployed to Iraq, where he remained for a year (missing the delivery of our third baby and his first 6 months of life-- read more on that here). We recently celebrated the birth of our fifth child- and while he is no longer in the army, he'll always be my hero. 
Even being a former military wife, I'll never fully understand what our hardworking soldiers go through in times of war or separation- or that well of strength deep inside that draws them to military service in the first place. I do, however, understand the network of heroes who are left behind: the husbands and wives and children of those servicemen and women... the ones who didn't necessarily choose a military life- but proudly, humbly, bravely follow their soldiers to lands unknown. So in addition to the amazing men and women who are willing to fight and die for this country, we applaud the lesser-known heroes in trenches of their own: the tired mom who fixes toilets, mows the lawn and remembers to take out the trash... the anxious dad who drives carpool, braids hair and bakes cupcakes for class, the child who puts one foot in front of the other every day- a weary smile on his face. Our military families are the backbone of this country- and we all owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. Having said that, W.D. Wolf wants to honor a hometown hero with "Hometown Firecracker" outfits for his or her family. So, who is your hero? Leave your nominations here. Please tell us a little bit about your favorite soldier, military spouse or family- and what makes them so very special. We will select and announce the winner this week. Love, Sarah & Shannon
My hero is my husband. He served 2 tours overseas, 1 before we met and the other in 2009 right after our son turned 1. He served 11 years. He is honorably discharged as a captain.
My husband is our Hero. We met right after I had graduated highschool in 2004 and got married the summer of 2007 right after he finished basic training. Within two months we had moved halfway across the country, found out we were expecting and discovered he will be deploying to Iraq within a year. The emotions that come with all that are unreal, but he took it in stride. He was in training for a few months while I was pregnant and then deployed when our first son was only 3 months old. He unfortunately missed many of the first milestones in our first son’s life, little did we know that it would soon be happening again in another year. We got stationed a year later in Texas(still away from family in Ga), while still staying in a hotel looking for a house, I found out I was expecting again. Once we got into a house and he got put with a unit, you guessed it….he was set to deploy to Iraq, but this time in only a few months! We went home on leave and had our first Dr’s appointment and found out we were expecting TWINS! Unfortunately he missed their birth, but was able to make it home to meet them when they were just a week old and came back when they were 4 months old. We finally got stationed closer to home, but yet again he was being deployed, but this time to Afghanistan. Luckily, we are hopefully not going to have to deal with anymore deployments because he is thinking about getting out when his current contract is up. My husband is not only my hero, but my children’s as well.
Denise demarchis AKA MJC Love how much she helps others!)
My brother-in-law is in the marines reserves after being active duty for 4 years. He went to Iraq and spent a year and a half there. This was so hard to for my sister as the phone calls from him were far and few between. When he came back to California he decided to leave the military to be closer to his family and my family here in New York. Unfortunately it was a rough road from there. Due to the lack of jobs, it made it difficult to afford to live here. He decided to go into the reserves in order to support his family. He had to go away for a couple months in order to be retrained in this new position. This is distance again was difficult for them but as a military wife my sister knew that this will always be what could happen.When he came back home he promised his family that he would do whatever he could so that they could stay here in New York with their loved ones. Soon after my sister found out she was pregnant with their beautiful baby savannah marie. Flash forward a little over a year and savannah is now 6 months, my brother in law is now a proud nypd officer, my sister is a preschool teacher and still goes to the reserves once a month. They are working on trying to get a house for the three of them but in the mean time I am lucky enough to have them live here where I can see my beautiful niece grow every day! I know my sister would love that beautiful dress for her and would be honored to win such a wonderful prize!
My hometown hero, is non other than my own husband! Our story is very similar to yours, as we also met at LSU! Mississippi boy, born and raised, found a Louisiana girl and never looked back! After losing our home in 2005 in hurricane Katrina, and a transfer that moved us to Alabama, Josh fulfilled a calling he had since high school and joined the Army National Guard. He is a Captain in the 205th Engineering Battalion out of Bogolousa, La and just returned in December from a year long deployment to Kuwait. Our daughter was 20 months and son was 4 months old when he left. Wow what a crazy year it was. We sold our home and I also suddenly lost my mother, all while he was gone. It is a great feeling to have him home and have our family back together. No one can understand that feeling unless they have been through it! While there may be other families that are more deserving, I always like the chance to recognize my husband! He is a man who gives so unselfishly and really works and lives to please and provide for his family. He’s even become a pro at “carting!” …and THAT, my fellow WDW lovers, is enough in itself!