(NYTimes) – Gathering over a kitchen table and glasses of wine in early 2003, a group of officers’ wives at Camp Pendleton, Calif., cobbled together a plan for helping Marines injured during the invasion of Iraq.
First they distributed snacks and toiletries at hospitals, then they bought plane tickets and special equipment for wounded Marines and their families. Volunteers all, the wives assumed that the war would end in 2004, allowing them to go happily out of business.
But the war not only continued, it expanded – and so did their endeavor.