BLUE STAR MOMS REACH OUT.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

NEWHALL -- A blue star hangs in Debi Duke's bedroom window for her 20-year-old son, an Army airborne medic leaving for Iraq sometime this summer.

Around town, some 14 other moms display blue stars in their windows to symbolize their sons and daughters training Iraqi police, working as intelligence analysts and guarding convoys of supplies in outposts around the world.

Part of the Blue Star Mothers of America, the women were once strangers to one another, although they likely shopped at the same supermarket, cheered at the same athletic events, crossed paths at school events.

But they've become part of one another's lives since they joined the nonprofit service organization for moms with kids in the military.

The local chapter meets one Wednesday a month to plan fundraisers, organize care-package campaigns and visit veterans hospitals.

But when the work ends, the real conversations start as the 15 women -- who hail from Saugus, Canyon Country and Newhall -- find someone who understands what it's like to have a child facing danger far from home.

``You just can't talk to your neighbors whose kids went to college or to Europe to travel. This is different,'' Duke said. ``Another military mom who went through it or is going through it, well, no one understands like that person.''

Mary Haley recently recalled her eight days of anguish when she didn't hear from her 19-year-old son, Nick, a military police officer who trains Iraqi police officers in Mosul.

And after Nick eventually e-mailed back, apologizing and explaining that communications had been down, Haley knew who would understand what those eight days had felt like.

``With the Blue Star moms, someone has always been where you are now. They say that it's OK that you haven't heard from them. It's OK that you feel angry. It's OK that you're elated over a two-line e-mail,'' Haley said.

Outside City Hall, 225 blue stars sparkle from the tree branches, each representing a local resident -- someone's child -- living in tents, aboard ships or in base camps around the world.

Sprinkled among the blue stars are seven gold ones, honoring those who have died in service to their country.

Each night, Duke checks the Internet for military death announcements from the Department of Defense. As president of the local Blue Star chapter, it's her responsibility to contact families whose children have died in the service and offer them gold stars from the group in remembrance.

For each name she reads, she says a prayer. She says another prayer for the family. Last weekend, she attended the funeral of a soldier from Lancaster.

``It's still heartbreaking,'' Duke said. ``I handle it better. There are days I don't handle it as well.''

All his life, Jason Rogers dreamed of being a U.S. Forest Service firefighter and was advised to enroll in college or join the military. He joined the Air Force and is scheduled to leave for Kuwait in late August. Iraq is his next likely stop.

The news has left his mother, Karrie Rogers, to cope with a mixture of emotions -- sadness and anger, but -- always -- pride.

It was her son who led her to Blue Star Mothers. After seeing a program about the group on TV, Jason Rogers called the president and asked her to contact his mom.

The Canyon Country mother cried during her first meeting, touched by the stories and experiences of the other women.

Now she's an active member of the group, collecting donations for care packages, decorating a float for the Fourth of July parade and talking with other moms who have kids in boot camp and spread far across the globe.

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Santa Clarita residents Debi Duke, left, and Mary Haley look at a banner signed by soldiers serving in the Iraq war who are either local or live in nearby cities and also have moms who belong to Blue Star Mothers of America.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer