Anita VanderMolen doesn’t have to deal with empty nest syndrome, because she took her nest on the road! At the age of 41, she enlisted in the National Guard, and found herself assigned to the 41st Infantry Brigade combat team, in the same unit as her 19-year-old son! Now both are in Iraq, where the rest of the unit refers to her as “Vander-mommy.”

Through a very special phone hookup, The Growing Bolder Radio Show was able to speak with VanderMolen during her deployment in Iraq, and asked her about the war, her thoughts on military life and serving side-by-side with her son.