Families of the Fallen Find Healing Through TAPS

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2010— -- Teresa and Megan Priestner have made the journey to Arlington National Cemetery every Memorial Day weekend for the last four years. There, mother and daughter quietly honor Chief Warrant Officer 4 John Richard Priestner, the husband and father who died when his Apache helicopter went down in Iraq in 2006.

For Megan, who was then just 10 years old, the pain was overwhelming.

"I didn't accept it. I just sat there and stared at the clock. In my head I said, 'No, he's not dead, no, he can't leave me, and no, I'm too young for him to go,'" she said.

John and Teresa grew up together, attending the same kindergarten and graduating from the same high school. After years of friendship, they fell in love when he returned home from training in the Air Force.

They had two daughters together, Breanne and Megan, and were married for nearly 19 years before he died serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Teresa says seeing her daughters struggle was the hardest part of losing her husband.

"If I could have taken the grief from them so they didn't have to suffer it, I would," she said through tears. "Watching them lose their dad and go through what they went through ... it was the worst."

Megan even attempted suicide several times, after each one, waking up in the emergency room.

"My mom and my sister almost lost me three times," she said. "I overdosed and I was cutting myself."

But Megan, now 14, has found a place to heal in the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, a national organization that brings surviving families of fallen soldiers together, to process grief and celebrate life.

"This is our safe place to talk about our loved ones and to introduce them to others who never got the chance to know them," TAPS founder Bonnie Carroll said.

Carroll started TAPS in 1994, after her husband, Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll, was killed in a plane crash. She found herself with little support, and created her own network. Today, TAPS has tens of thousands of members around the country.