By: Betsey Fortlouis, Camp Corral Executive Director
In 2003, Sgt. Rosanna Powers was deployed to Kuwait, only to return a month later after finding out she was pregnant with her first child. Ten months after her young son was born, Rosanna was notified that her brother, Lance Cpl. Caleb Powers, and her fiancé and the father of her son, Sgt. Richard Lord, had both been killed—one day apart—serving our country in Iraq.
Rosanna now lives with her 10-year-old son in a rural town outside of Gainesville, Florida. Rosanna’s son has grown up without a father, an uncle and kids who understand him most: the children of fallen military service members. However, thanks to Camp Corral, Rosanna has been able to give her son a priceless gift: a fun-filled week of summer camp with other military kids who are just like him.
Since October 2001, the world in which American military children grow up has changed dramatically because of high levels of deployment and an increased reliance on Reserve and Natio…