Sgt. 1st Class Maureen A. Houston (right) and Spc. Brion Houston, mother and son, see each other every day, a rarity during deployment. “Being deployed and having my son here with me is surreal,” says Houston, who is in charge of personnel readiness for the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) serving in Afghanistan.
Serving in Afghanistan means Maureen Houston, a sergeant with the Vermont National Guard and single mother of a three, will miss her 17-year-old son’s graduation from Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans in June. Houston consoles herself with the fact that she is planning to take leave to attend her son’s graduation from National Guard basic training in September. “I thought it was more important,” she said.
There’s more consolation, too: Houston’s 19-year-old son, Brion, is also a Vermont National Guard member deployed to Afghanistan and she expects to see him today. “We plan on doing something like going to the chow hall together,” she said.
Houston works as a postal clerk in St. Albans when she’s not on Guard duty. Her current tour is easier than an earlier deployment to Afghanistan in 2003, when her children were younger, Houston said. Her mother took care of all three children during the first deployment and is helping out with the 17-year-old this time. Houston’s oldest, age 22, was a full-time military medic who is taking time off to be a new mom herself.
Because the children are involved with military life themselves, they understand what their mother is going through, Houston said. “I really don’t have to explain a lot — they get it.”
