Her son wanted to make a difference in the Army. Now she makes a difference serving vets

Mike Argento | York Daily Record

Five years ago, Sue Bauer’s only child, Mark Jr., called her from Missouri with some news.

He had moved to Missouri, following a girlfriend who would later become his ex-wife, and he was not terribly happy with how life was going.

After graduating from South Western High School, he had worked several different jobs. He worked with his mother in the home theater business for a while and then worked with his dad, Mark Sr., at his machine shop. After moving to Lake Ozark, Missouri, he went to work at a Walmart, doing oil changes and mounting tires in the automotive department. He liked working on cars, but he felt that his life lacked meaning, that the work was a dead end.

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He told his mother he needed to make a change.

“I just got back from the recruiter’s office,” he told her.

He had joined the Army.

In high school, he had been a member of the Navy Sea Cadets, but it had appeared that he lost interest in serving in the military after graduation. He wasn’t sure then that he wanted to join the service.

He obviously had changed his mind.

He told his mother he wanted to be somebody, to make a difference. He said he was signing up for himself, his family and his country. “This is my duty,” he told his mother.

Sue is an emotional person. Her friends describe her as a crier. (“I cry over everything,” she said.) And she wept when she heard her only child was enlisting with the Army. The country was involved in deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other hot spots around the world. And she is protective of her only child. Both of his parents were deeply involved in his life. Sue served as PTA president when he was in school and his father coached him in baseball and football.

The notion of her son risking all to serve his country was frightening.

“Honestly,” she said later, “it was terrifying. It was scary; I’m not going to lie. But when your child says he wants to make a difference...”

She didn’t say anything to her son. It was his decision. He was an adult. It wasn’t her place to discourage him. “You have to let your children find out things on their own,” she said. “This is what he wanted to do.”

In the ensuing five years, her son made her proud. Now 28, he has served overseas in South Korea and Europe, and he has a family now. He is a sergeant, a cavalry scout who commands a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He has earned a number of commendations for his leadership and his service. His mother said he didn’t really display leadership skills growing up. She said his style is to lead by example.

She wears a dog tag around her neck at all times. And she was wearing it when she met Christine Waltz at a fundraiser for For the Love of a Veteran, the nonprofit Waltz runs to support our troops and veterans.

At the time, her son was on his first deployment, stationed on the DMZ in South Korea. He had sent his mother a picture of the wall marking the border with the north. His unit does exercises on the south side of the wall. On the north side is Kim Jong-un and his rockets. “Ten feet over,” he told his mother, “is where that guy is.”

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Waltz asked Sue for her son’s mailing address, and she provided it. Not long after, Mark Jr. received a box of goodies from home. Receiving the box, he told his mother, was “awesome.”

“It means so much to him to get something from his hometown,” Sue said. “Once he was out in the field and when he returned to his base, the chow hall had closed for the day. So he went to the box for some snacks.”

Sue volunteers with For the Love of a Veteran, doing what she can to help. “I really wish I could do more,” she said.

As she has gotten to know more veterans and soldiers, she feels a debt to them. That her son is in the service – now stationed at Fort Hood in Texas – makes the work even more meaningful. “It’s very rewarding,” she said.

She still worries about her son and his safety — that he might still be deployed to a war zone. He tells his mother not to worry. “We’re trying to be the best,” he told his mother. “Never fear. I will be safe.”

But she can’t stop worrying.

“He’ll always be my little boy,” she said. “But now, he’s an American soldier.”

Christmas Emergency Fund

Each holiday season, the York Daily Record offers readers the opportunity to help our community through the Christmas Emergency Fund. The beneficiary of this year’s fund is “For the Love of a Veteran.”

This York County-based nonprofit provides aid and raises funds for military families in need and homeless veterans – and raises awareness about veterans who struggle with PTSD.

The group sends care packages to deployed troops every month and fills backpacks with supplies for homeless veterans. Volunteers tag trees in the Stem to Stone program for troops that have been killed in action or veterans from this area who have passed away. For the Love of a Veteran also sends gift cards around the holidays to veterans and active-duty military.

York Traditions Bank has long partnered with YDR in this effort, accepting donations mailed in by readers, accounting for the funds and disbursing them – all free of charge so every penny goes to help our beneficiary.

Checks can be mailed to: YDR Christmas Emergency Fund C/O York Traditions Bank, 226 Pauline Drive, York, PA 17402-0136.

Current total: $3,637.96