Six weeks into his tour in Iraq, an Arkansas National Guardsman called his wife at home while he hunkered down for cover during his turn at watch. He wanted to check to see if his wife got the flowers he sent her.

Instead, his wife's frantic voice told him that their home was burning, and 6 hours later, it burned to the ground. This photo is all that remains of that home - dirt and a concrete sidewalk - and what the soldier saw when he arrived back in McRae four days later for an 8 day emergency leave.

The fire happened in April, and the soldier's wife and four boys moved into the new double-wide mobile home she finally managed to have delivered and set up two weeks ago. She ran into more than a few roadblocks while buying the home, and solved every problem she ran into - alone. Everything the family now has was donated to them, and though the new house is pretty barren, the soldier's wife is making it into a home. It's the home the soldier will return to in December or January.

With so much taking up our attention - the sinking economy, the election, the speculation about what will happen now, gas prices, food prices, job losses - it's easy to forget about our soldiers still in Iraq and Afghanistan still risking their lives for their country, and for you and I.

To every mother, wife, father, brother or sister of a soldier, I thank you for your sacrifice, and give my thanks to your soldier when you talk to him or her again.

Read more of my thanks to our soldiers at A Bumpy Path.