'Though the United States' involvement in Afghanistan ended on August 31, my son will feel the war's ripples as he grows up with only stories about his grandfather,' Kelly McHugh-Stewart writes for CNNOpinion.
Kelly McHugh-Stewart is a writer based out of New York City. Her reporting and personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Reader's Digest and Sports Illustrated, among others. She is currently working on a memoir about sacrifice, legacy, and finding meaning in the Forever War. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.
My first child is due September 13, just around the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. He'll never get the chance to meet his grandfather. My father, US Army Colonel John M. McHugh, was killed in Afghanistan. Though the United States involvement in Afghanistan ended on August 31, my son will feel the war's ripples. As he grows up with only stories about his grandfather, the man he'll share a name with, the Forever War will haunt him in ways that, over the past decade, they've haunted me. I'm already bracing for the day he starts asking questions.Kelly McHugh-Stewart"Why did he have to die?" he may ask.
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