SouthernWorldwide.com – Ten years ago on Mother’s Day, I found myself serving as a CIA station chief in a South Asian war zone.
Many of us were married with young children, and we often shared our feelings of longing for our families back home. We found some comfort in being deployed together, working behind enemy lines on a critical mission to protect our country from terrorist threats.
Our limited downtime was typically filled with stories about our children, dutifully relayed by our spouses. However, this never truly compensated for missing our children’s significant life events, celebrating holidays together, or watching them participate in sports.
Several female officers at our station also had very young children who couldn’t comprehend their mothers’ careers or the specifics of their overseas assignments. All they understood was that Mom was far from home and would return for brief visits during her deployment.
Even a year apart felt like an eternity, representing a substantial portion of their young lives.
Mother’s Day is traditionally a time for fathers and children to honor mothers and motherhood with celebratory family meals, flowers, and handmade cards.
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When a mother is deployed overseas with the CIA, the best a family could hope for was an occasional FaceTime call, provided the internet connection was stable.
The clandestine nature of the CIA’s work meant that children rarely knew their mother’s true occupation. They might have been told she was on a business trip for an international company or working for another government agency.
Naturally, Mom would never disclose details about her espionage work, such as participating in a high-threat meeting armed with a Glock, M4, and body armor to meet a source with ties to a terrorist group.
Nor would she reveal debriefing a source who possessed intelligence on an Al Qaeda network aiming to cause harm.
She also wouldn’t mention reviewing trauma first aid procedures and practicing marksmanship before driving across the country to meet with host-government counterterrorism officials.
And certainly not the late-night secure video teleconferences to brief the CIA director and the White House.
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Our sons, until they reached their teenage years, had no real understanding of their mother’s role as a CIA disguise technician. She would equip CIA officers with disguises, enabling them to recruit spies and gather intelligence without being detected by adversaries.
What they knew was that Mom made the best homemade pancakes and waffles, provided bedtime snuggles, offered comfort when they were sad, healed them when they were sick, showered them with Easter candy and Christmas presents, and orchestrated the most amazing birthday parties.
Perhaps the only hint of Kim’s secret work was evident in the elaborate Halloween costumes she designed for our sons, who then collected a bounty of candy from our impressed neighbors.
However, celebrating Mother’s Day while Mom is deployed overseas can also be profoundly transformative for children. Though they may not realize it immediately, over time, they come to appreciate their mother’s patriotism, sacrifice, bravery, and contribution to national security.
The late Charles Krauthammer eloquently underscored the necessity of a strong, forward-deployed U.S. presence to identify and neutralize overseas threats before they reach our shores.
The events of September 11th demonstrated how terrorists, plotting from ungoverned territories, particularly in the South Asian region where I served my last overseas assignment, could impact our homeland despite the geographical distance that once provided a unique sense of security.
Mom is an undercover CIA officer on the front lines, defending our grateful nation. This truly embodies what it means to be a role-model parent, balancing work and family life.
Therefore, this Mother’s Day, let us take a few moments to express our gratitude for the mothers who are separated from their families while serving a righteous U.S. government mission overseas.
This is especially true even if we do not possess the necessary security clearance to fully comprehend the nature or the dangers of their missions.
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Let us also offer prayers for the safe return of every mom, to her family who awaits her with open arms and tears of joy.
