A Marine Mom's Mission

Inspiration   >  Encouragement and Support   >  A Marine Mom's Mission

Critical care nurse Paula Zwillinger of LaGrangeville, New York, is used to taking action. When her son Bob Mininger enlisted in the Marine Corps and shipped out to Iraq in January 2005, Paula hit the Internet, searching for information on what her son—and the rest of her family—would be facing. She found the name of another Marine mom nearby.

The two mothers got together not long after Bob's deployment. They didn't want to just commiserate about having children serving in Iraq, Paula says. "We wanted to do something." So they started a support group, Semper Fi Parents of the Hudson Valley. Paula, her friend and other local Armed Forces parents met regularly to share information on their roles as military parents and organize fundraisers and donation drives to send care packages to their children's units.

Then the unthinkable happened. That June, just before Bob was scheduled to come back to the U.S., he was killed by an IED near Fallujah. Instead of retreating into her grief, Paula redoubled her efforts for the troops. But helping from home wasn't enough. She wanted to be closer to those in need.

Last year, courtesy of Hope for the Warriors, an organization that provides adapted housing, financial assistance and other services to wounded soldiers and their families, Paula and her husband, Larry, spent Christmas at a U.S. military base in Germany visiting servicemen and women. "My other son works in Georgia," Paula explains. "The holidays have been the hardest to get through, but I was glad to be there with the troops."

Paula and Larry delivered care packages and met with some of the soldiers who were in the hospital on the base. Next, Paula wants to visit Iraq and tour combat hospitals to thank the doctors, nurses and servicemen and women personally for their efforts.

"For me, it's a way of keeping Bob's memory alive. It's a way of taking care of his brothers," Paula says. "Everybody is a brother in the Marine Corps, so I'm kind of like a mother to all of them." A Gold Star mother with a Gold Star heart.

This article originally appeared in Guideposts magazine. Visit the recently updated guideposts.com today.