Mar 30, 2003 By Jennifer Harr 5 min read

When Scarlett Huey watches TV these days, she’s looking for her son. She hasn’t heard from Timmy in about a month, and she hopes each night that she’ll catch even a glimpse of his face in a camera shot.

Her son, Pvt. Timothy Jordan, is in Kuwait with the U.S. Army.

Today, Huey said, she will celebrate Jordan’s 19th birthday in his absence.

He left for boot camp June 22 and was shipped to Kuwait earlier this month. His tour can last anywhere from six to 14 months, she said.

A freshman human development major at Penn State Fayette, Huey smiles a lot and seems to be holding up better than most people with a loved one overseas would in a war-torn time.

She said it’s because she’s on overload because of her 19-credit semester as an adult student, her two younger children and her worry, but her faith in God is getting her through.

Friday, after a rally at the campus to support the troops, she abandoned last-minute cramming for a test she had later that day. It was a test she hadn’t studied for because she spent much of the night before watching war reports on TV.

“I watch a lot, but I wonder sometimes if it’s not a double-edged sword. Are you better off knowing or not knowing?” she asked.

And when she hears of killed soldiers, Huey said, she holds her breath, waiting to find out their names, praying her son isn’t among the dead. When she finds out that he was not one of the ones killed, she feels relief, then guilt. Her son was spared, but someone else’s has died.

“I’m sorry that it happened, but what a relief it’s not mine,” she said.

Huey last talked to Jordan in early March, after he’d shipped off to Germany and before he was shipped to the Middle East. He wrote his will on the way to Germany, she said.

When he got there, he called to tell her that he saw the ocean on the flight.

Huey said she remembers her son at 9 years old at Christmas, surrounded by Army gear he’d gotten as a present. Jordan joined the Army because he wanted neither to go on to college nor to hold a dead-end job, but because the armed service included physical activity and weaponry, both things he was interested in.

“He thought it would be a great way to do something he loved,” said Huey.

Before he enlisted, Jordan liked to play video games and watch cartoons. Before he was shipped overseas, he handed down his collection of movies, music and video games to his younger siblings. Huey said her son was inspired to help make changes in Iraq largely because of his siblings.

“In Iraq, they rape children and they force young boys into military service. He told me, ‘They can’t stand up for themselves, so I’m going to do it for them,'” said Huey.

She said her son seemed “OK” about going to war, “but you never really are.

“He said it’s better for the Army to go in and risk chemical warfare there than to risk it on our soil.”

As Huey has a strong belief in God, so does her son, she said. He joked with her that he was going to take his camouflage Bible into combat and keep it in his back pocket. If he got shot there, Jordan said, he would be able to take the Bible out and surely would not have been hit by the bullet.

“Then I can say, ‘See, God’s word really saves,'” Huey quoted her son as saying.

Although it’s rare to see the smile disappear from Huey’s animated face, she does have somber moments, she said.

The hardest thing for her was hearing from her son’s Sunday school teacher. The teacher told her that her son was sending him letters for the important people in his life. If he died, the teacher was to give them out.

“That was the hardest thing to hear, that he realized he might not be coming home,” Huey said.

But Huey confidently told the Sunday school teacher she wouldn’t be taking that letter.

“Even though I can’t protect my son, God’s there,” she said. “I’m sure God is taking care of him the way he’s taking care of all the troops.”

While Huey can’t be certain when or if her son is getting the care packages she sends him, she continues to mail out items to him. Sent items can’t be packaged in anything larger than a shoebox, and it’s an estimated three to six weeks before the men overseas get their mail, she said.

But mail, be it pictures drawn by children, letters from Americans or care packages, keep up spirits of American troops overseas, said Huey.

She offered her son’s address if anyone wants to send supplies or a letter to him:

Pvt. Timothy Jordan

HHC2 327INF

96022

APO AE

09325-6022