Mark Allen McCaleb Jr. was itching to join the U.S. Army when he was 18, but his mother succeeded in stalling him for three years.
That was as long as she could hold him back, she said.
"When Allen turned 21, he said, 'This is something I always wanted to do.' I couldn't stop him," said Amy Jennings, a Greenwood native who now lives in Brandon.
Now 24 and an army specialist with the 3rd Infantry, McCaleb was once again itching to get into the action as he waited for orders in Kuwait on March 16, the last time his mother spoke to him.
"He sounded very good," she said. "Being the little soldier he is, he said he hoped to be going to war soon. He said morale was high."
But he was also pining for the comforts of home.
"He said the sooner they got things over with the sooner they got home," said Jennings. "He said he was getting sick of the sand."
Shortly after the war began, Jennings began to put together a "share package" at the Jackson law office where she works. Co-workers wanted to know what they could do, so she asked them to chip in, she said.
"My box turned into 30 boxes. The firm paid the postage as well as donated different items in bulk."
McCaleb's sister, April Kilpatrick, put together a similar pool where she works and ended up with 16 boxes. Jennings said the mail flow to the troops has surged from 22,000 pounds to 750,000 pounds a day. She knows her son will get his mail eventually.
"It may be waiting for them back at camp when they do return," she said.
Meanwhile, at the Carroll County home of his father, Mark McCaleb, another little soldier has been preparing for action. The elder McCaleb says another son, Isaac, 8, may be even more devoted to his dreams of military life than his half-brother was.
Isaac rarely takes off the beret his brother gave him before shipping out to Kuwait, their father said.
"Since Allen enlisted, the boy's dressed in camouflage every day," Mr. McCaleb. "He's an 8-year-old hero."
