Celebrating the legacy of all children who have been a part of the military community

April is the Month of the Military Child, a time set aside to celebrate the legacy of all children who have been a part of the military community. April is a month dedicated to recognizing the sacrifice thousands of children make by giving up their parents to serve this nation.

Military children live some of the most unique lives of any children in the United States. Frequent moves, deployments and redeployments teach military children to be resilient -- a trait the military values in its servicemembers. This lifestyle of constant transience teaches military children to be leaders, to accept responsibility from an early age and to seek greater responsibility later in life.

While the military lifestyle is not what many would consider an ideal environment for raising a Family, it has raised some of our nation's best and brightest, from military leaders like Douglas MacArthur, actors such as Bruce Willis and Reese Witherspoon and athletes like Mia Hamm and Shaquille O'Neal.

In a nation dedicated to the defense of freedom at home and abroad, the strain of maintaining that freedom falls on servicemembers and their Families. Military children grow up in largely single-parent homes during deployments and training that takes their servicemember far from home.

The strain this places on a Family unit, especially on the children, isn't something that can be measured and calculated. But it's a burden military Families and especially military children bear in silence.

The bravery of military children parting with their loved ones with stiff upper lip and (mostly) dry eyes is something life in the service has taught them as much as it has taught their Soldier -- to be brave in the face of adversity, to be unafraid of the sacrifice your country may call on you to make. This is not only true of each Soldier, Marine, Airman, Guardsman and Sailor, the children they leave behind must also learn the same hard lessons.

To grow up as a military child is to experience places and people and things that others in this great nation can only dream of. To be a military child is to canvas the United States and even to travel outside its borders, to be in your sixth year of school but in your eighth school, to learn that home is where the military sends you, to give up dreams of life-long friends and neighborhoods, and to make Family traditions travel-friendly.

Being a military child is no simple task. While most military children have no say in their circumstances, all learn to adapt and emerge better and stronger for it. So remember to celebrate and recognize the military children in your life this April. Because being 'Army Strong' does not apply only to those in camouflage uniforms. 'Army Strong' is the boy who hugs his mother so tight he's left with an imprint of her rank on his cheek. 'Army Strong' is the little girl waving her American flag while her father fades into a sea of khaki and green.