Eastern Iowa military family listens closely to President’s speech

Mary Bryan says her daughter Sarah's decision to serve as an army medic came as a bit of shock.

“She came home and said, 'I signed up.' I was like, ‘oh really?'”

Bryan says Sarah joined the National Guard and married her husband, Liam, also an army medic from North Carolina, in October of 2010.  Both Sarah and Liam deployed to Afghanistan that same year.

“To have two of them deployed at the same time that's really scary for me,” Bryan said.

While the two are overseas, Bryan's been watching over their 2 year-old daughter, Coraline.  Bryan says she shows the little girl pictures of her parents every day.

“We're always pointing out pictures, and saying ‘Mommy' and ‘Daddy'.”

Bryan along with a few friends at the American Legion in Swisher watched as President Obama addressed the nation on Wednesday night.

The president announced 33,000 troops will be returning home from Afghanistan over the next two years.

“You hope that you hear something like this, but you don't know,” she said.

The news does not come as a total relief to this military mom.  Her daughter is scheduled to come home in August, but still has two years of service.

“Sounds like Pakistan is still a place we'll be concerned about for a long-time,” said Bryan.

That's why she says she'll keep watching even after the President's speech knowing the fight might not be over for her daughter and new son-in-law anytime soon.

“There's a lot of prayers, I have awesome family support and friends that support me.  The sooner [the president] can get them out of there the better.”