Thoughts From The Home Front

"We avoid the news altogether," says military wife Trisha. "I'm tired of watching it, listening to it. It's easier when you don't have to think about it."

Trisha's husband is a lieutenant with the Marines in Iraq and he has a son born three weeks ago that he has never seen, reported The Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman.

"We really just try to comfort each other and support each other," says Terri a military wife of 19 years.

She says she can't get enough of the television coverage of war because her husband is on the front lines somewhere in the battle for Baghdad.

"If I could watch it 24 hours a day, I would watch it 24 hours a day," says Terri. " My husband's worried about me all the time, just as much as I am him. Because he knows I'm stressed out. He knows I'm wondering every moment, is he dead or alive."

With three young ones at home, Trisha has a hard time explaining where daddy is.

"[My child] will find any guy in uniform and call him daddy, and she still cries for him at night," says Trisha.

Though she checks for mail everyday, Trisha hasn't heard from her husband since the war began.

As the war intensifies, many of the U.S. casualties have been Marines from Camp Pendleton. Wives say they dread getting an unannounced visit from the Corps.

"It's the knock on the door," explains Terri. "Your whole heart stops until you figure out who it is. Some one that you don't know that's coming, that comes and knocks on the door, and you look out and you're hoping that it's not for you."

Veteran military wiives and novices cope in very different ways, but they are both equally proud of their soldiers and the important part they play in the war.

"I know it's important, but it doesn't mean that I don't want him back," says Trisha.

"He's keeping us all safe, and he's a Marine," says Terri. "And I love my husband for what he does. I'm behind him 100 percent."