News 12 This Morning, February 2, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga. --- These people all have something in common. They have a loved one serving in the military.

"Hardest part was not being on post. I really did need that community, and other wives around me with the same fears and the same concerns, and watching the news or hearing on the radio, everytime you hear two soldiers have been killed in Baghdad, you think it's yours," Bevalie Cannon said.

This is why Bevalie Cannon and Joane Moody started the Military Friends and Family Network in Edgefield.

"I had no support in Edgefield. We had a lot of family, and like she said, family is one thing, but people who've been there done that are another," Joane Moody said.

Joane's son is in the National Guard and served in Afghanistan in 2007. Bevalie's husband is an Army chaplain and went to Iraq in 2003. Right now he's stationed at Fort Jackson, and her son is at Fort Gordon. Then there's Doris Freeman, her son is currently serving in Iraq for the second time. She attended the first Military Friends and Family Network meeting and is happy to see a support group right at home.

"It helps you to know that someone else is going through the same thing that you're going through," Doris Freeman said.

Three women, who can all relate. And now they have the local support that they've needed for a long time.

"The loneliness that I felt when Michael did get his orders, I felt like I needed to really needed to do something to help those in the same situation I was," Cannon said.

The Military Friends and Family Network will meet once a month at the Edgefield County Public Library.