Band performs songs of patriotism

LEISAH NAMM
Assistant Editor

My boy's been gone a while now
And I haven't heard a word
I check the mailbox hopefully each day
I wake up every morning
With a prayer to keep him safe
And finally a letter came
today
And it said...

- "Dear Mom" by Sharon and Nat Wyner

After Sandi Cook's 20-year-old son received orders to serve overseas as an Army paratrooper shortly after Sept. 11, Cook didn't know where to turn.

"I felt like we were the only family in all of Phoenix who had anybody in the military - I didn't know of anybody else," she says.

Now the Mesa mother has a nationwide support system of more than 5,000 people.

Hoping to network with other military families, she designed T-shirts with a "God Bless America, God Bless our Military" logo and, in early October, founded Operation Network Military Moms.

After mentions on CNN and Fox News, she was "bombarded" with calls from military families and soldiers.

She stopped her mail order catalog business - selling women's intimate apparel from her home - and developed Operation Network Military Moms into a nonprofit organization. "There was a need for it," she explains. The group's Web site has chat rooms and bulletin boards for military families to "connect with each other."

Dear Mom, You always taught me
To stand up for what is right
There's an evil in the world now
And I have to join the fight
Remember that we're here
because
We have a job to do
And most of all remember
I love you

Soon after she founded the group, Cook was contacted by American Made, a California-based band who wrote a song during the Gulf War that they wanted to donate to her organization.

"Say Goodbye to Daddy" is "about a mom telling a little child that the dad is leaving to go fight in the war," says co-writer Sharon Wyner, lead singer of American Made.

Cook was "floored" by the offer and thought the song was "wonderful" but told them that the majority of people in her group were mothers. "We didn't have to explain that it was daddy leaving. We were concerned for our own kids that were leaving," Cook says.

She asked the band to write a song from a mother's point of view and sent them "bits and pieces" of letters from moms and soldiers.

While on the road, American Made wrote and recorded "Dear Mom."

Wyner describes the song as "a mother getting a letter from her son after not hearing from him for a while."

"After Sept. 11, we were all so distraught and not knowing what to do with ourselves," she says. "Once we started getting involved with this project, we just felt so much better."

"We felt very proud to be part of trying to help out," says husband and co-writer Nat Wyner, who sings and plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar for the band.

When they returned from their stint on the road, American Made manufactured the compact disc, with both songs, and presented it to the organization, which benefits from compact disc sales.

"I probably had to listen to ("Dear Mom") about 25 times before I could make it through without crying," Cook says. "It's actually the way military families feel and what our kids have said to us."

Although she started the organization when she thought her son was overseas, weeks later she found out that he had been injured in training and was still at his North Carolina base.

Mom, I miss you so much
But you know I had to go
I'm sorry I can't tell you where we are
I don't know where we're goin' next
Or what we'll have to do
But when my country calls,
I have to do my part

Although the government kept it quiet, soldiers were deployed on Sept. 11, Cook says. "When our military left, everybody was looking at the heroes in New York City - the firemen, the policemen. Nobody was thinking about what our military had to do."

Many soldiers left without time to call and say goodbye to their families, she says. "When their families found out they were gone, you can imagine what they went through."

Military security then tightened after the discovery of U.S. anthrax mailings, and "care packages got nixed, the letter-writing campaigns got nixed and we couldn't send anything," Cook says.

Not receiving letters and packages "takes the morale of our soldiers way down," she adds.

Operation Network Military Moms has security clearance to send care packages to the soldiers and is accepting monetary donations to help pay for the packages.

Between merchandise and care package supplies, "My house is now turned into a warehouse," Cook says.

The group also has a "comfort quilt program" which sends quilts and books to
children of deployed soldiers, as well as an Adopt a Mom program that assigns "moms" to soldiers who don't have one. The "moms" send packages and letters to the soldiers.

Operation Network Military Moms coordinators are located in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire. Plans are underway for to set up coordinators in 27 other states, Cook says.

You're the one who made me who I am
You and Dad together are the strength behind this man
You helped me learn what freedom's all about
And now I hope that I can make you proud

American Made, whose act includes country, oldies, classic rock, big band, swing, ballads and rhythm & blues, performs both songs from the compact disc at each show.

"We feel as long as there's a war going on, we want to feel like we're doing our part so we play the songs every night," Nat Wyner says.

The band formed in 1984 and has appeared in concert with Merle Haggard, George Strait and Alabama, and has performed at Disneyland, Disney World, Knott's Berry Farm, in Las Vegas, Reno, Tahoe and Laughlin casinos and at fairs, rodeos, concerts and nightclubs. American Made also toured with actor Dennis Weaver's country music show and played at his 50th wedding anniversary.

Other band members include Al Wentworth on vocals and bass, Bruce Maron on drums and vocals and George Gordon on lead guitar and vocals.

Nat Wyner is the son of Phoenix residents Honey and Saul Yellin.

The "Dear Mom" compact disc is available at www.milmoms.com or at the American Made shows.

Contact Operation Network Military Moms at 480-539-1108 or write to P.O. Box 8154, Mesa, AZ 85214.

Details

What: American Made performances
Where: Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino Resort, 15406 Maricopa Road, Maricopa
When: 7 p.m.-midnight Thursday, Feb. 28; 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday, March 1; 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Saturday, March 2; 4-9 p.m. Sunday, March 3 Call: (800) 427-7247

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