Staff Sgt. Robert Ives fired off the e-mail from the Kuwait Naval Base, where his Ohio Army National Guard unit from Springfield is stationed.

It was a few days before Mother's Day.

"Most everyone honors the soldiers fighting in the different conflicts around the world. There is another side of the soldier that few people get to see," he wrote. "They are the wives, mothers and mother-in-laws that give the soldiers a sense of comfort in their times of loneliness."

Ive's wife, Michelle, of Huber Heights, said it's been very difficult being separated from the man she married on March 17, 2007.

"The person you count on most, more than anyone, isn't here," she said.

Ives is a member of the HHC 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team 1st Detachment, which left in January for two months of training at Fort Hood, Texas, before heading to Kuwait.

The unit is expected to be there for about a year.

Ives appreciates his wife taking care of the household while working full-time and caring for their three sons, Nathan, 21, Cody, 17, and Cole, 9.

"She gets the kids off to school and ensures they get to practice on time," Ives wrote. "Meanwhile, she still manages to find the time to write me a letter or stay up late to receive my call from overseas."

This is Ives' third deployment during his 18-year career in the military.

He served as a Marine in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield in 1991-1992 and in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope from 1992-1993. With the National Guard, he previously served in Kuwait in 2005.

This time, his job in Kuwait is to run and support a base operations group.

While he's away, Ives said he's also grateful for his mother-in-law, Carol Anderson of Vandalia.

"I know that she aides in the comforting of our kids and her grandchildren in my absence," he said. "Always doing what she can do to help my wife out while I am gone."

Anderson, a retired school teacher who lives with her husband, Larry, keeps in touch with Ives through e-mail and is preparing to mail her son-in-law a care package to fill his craving for chocolate chip cookies and Starbucks coffee.

"We just miss him and are concerned about him, the family and all the other families involved in the war," she said.

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