@Drnaline,
Thanks for sharing this story. We have a friend who also did the same thing. He left for Iraq at at the same time that his oldest son left to go on a mission for our Church. That left 4 younger ones still at home.
His wife Jodi was talking to my grandson and I one day and he made the comment about how it must suck for her. She looked at him and said that "No, we are doing okay. It's the people in Iraq that have lives that suck and he's making it better for them." He's only 13 but wants to enlist when he is old enough because of the example of this family.
The husband and son both came back within 2 weeks of each other. But it was a long 2 years I'm sure for them all.