Things are so much different now. I remember when I was a kid, I had three brothers in SE Asia at the same time, one Army, one Navy, and one Air Force. Didn't matter what color staff car went up the street, my mom freaked. It didn't help that we lived half a block from a National Guard armory, so staff cars were a constant. We'd get maybe 1 phone call every 6 months, an a letter every month or son, maybe. When my son was in the Navy in the Middle East, he had email and sometimes cell phone service. If I didn't hear from him for more than a day or two, I freaked. I don't think I slept for that whole 6 months he was over there. I thought he'd be safe as a Navy cook, but he got assigned to a Navy Hospital that supplied personnel for the filed hospitals that the Marines went to. He got combat pay for baking cakes, and I started getting gray hairs.
