Military Moms Have Something to Say About 'Surge'

LAKE JACKSON, Texas, Jan. 10, 2007 — -- At the end of a dusty road in Brazoria County, Texas, about an hour south of Houston, is a long fence. The fence has the name of every U.S. soldier killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It doesn't have the elegant simplicity of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, but it is a heartbreaking reminder of what so many families have lost during the more than five years of fighting since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

A remarkable number of young men and women from Brazoria County have volunteered to join the Armed Forces, and many of them are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their mothers and fathers have formed a support group, known as the Military Moms of Brazoria County, to help one another.

In the last two weeks, two families in the small town of Lake Jackson have buried sons killed in Iraq: Marine Lance Corp. Stephen Morris and Spec. Cody Ford, so Vicky McConnell, whose 20-year-old son Ryan Brown is about to be sent overseas, is painfully aware that some day officers in uniform could walk up her sidewalk and knock on her door, to tell her something has happened to him.

Ryan is in the 82nd Airborne, and leaves next week for his first tour of duty overseas in Afghanistan. She knows after that he could be sent to Iraq.

"I don't want him to go, but he volunteered, so he has a job to do," McConnell said. "I pray for him every day, and I want him to come back soon. I want them all to come back soon"

ABC News spoke with some of the moms in the Texas support group to get their reaction to Bush's new plan. When asked what she wants to hear from the president during his speech, McConnell said she just isn't sure if there is any solution for Iraq.

Her friend Pat Simpson has a son, Sgt. Cory Simpson, in the Marines in Iraq. She says he is proud to be a Marine but she worries. "I miss him, I pray. The only way you can get through the day with a son in Iraq is to pray, to pray that God has his arms wrapped around him and will keep him safe," Simpson said.