Several Central Valley Blue Star moms who spoke to Action News are hoping Bin Laden's death will signal a beginning to more peace in the world.
Charlotte Novak-Brown's son Blake served three years in Somalia for the U.S. Army. She spent many sleepless nights during those years. "When your child is in harm's way, your feelings are so mixed. Number one, you're worried about the safety of your child and everyone else's child, just as a mother. Sleeping with your cell phone, being able to take international calls, your employer understanding."
Novak-Brown is part of Central Valley Blue Star moms, moms who support other moms whose children are currently deployed. Gale Carroll is another blue star mom, she had two sons serving in the war at the same time, her oldest son Lloyd joined the army shortly after 9-11, three years later, and her younger son "J.J." joined too. Carroll signed a waiver for both sons allowing them sign up at 17. Both felt compelled to go to war.
Gale Carroll said, "For the most part, I think the majority of men who went over, and young women, did it for that reason. I think they saw a really big increase in the recruits and those willing to serve. They just felt like it was something they had to do."
Now 25, J.J. is in the Army Reserves, and thankful Osama bin Laden is gone. "I was very happy, very excited, not to celebrate death, but it was someone that we had been looking for, for a long time, it's about time we found him."
J.J. Carroll hopes that now Osama Bin Laden is gone some of his fellow soldiers can return home.
Charlotte Novak-Brown and other Blue Star Moms hope the world's landscape will now change. "Our hope is that someone doesn't rise to take his place, that there would just be peace in the world."
