For a couple of years now, two Stars and Stripes reporters have impressed some talented high school students with stories about covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The students were "Free Spirit Journalism Scholars." Such youngsters are selected annually by the nonprofit Freedom Forum for a scholarship and a week in Washington, D.C.

Lisa Burgess, who covers the Pentagon for Stripes, and Leo Shane, who covers Capitol Hill, have both been downrange. They walked the students through a typical deployment. There were lots of questions from these bright kids, of the "what's-it-like" variety. Then a girl asked a question that brought a little hesitation: "Your families...how do they feel about you covering a dangerous war?" Well, they don't like it much, the reporters allowed.

Much has been written about the strains that the servicemembers' deployments cause for their families, not to mention the unbearable grief that befalls those who have lost relatives or friends in the fighting. In the conflicts now raging, no less a strain falls on the families of reporters.

One hundred and twenty-seven journalists have been killed in the Iraq war so far. Of those, more than a hundred have been Iraqis. Yes, they are in constant danger too. The Reuters news agency has an outstanding graphic timeline on its Web site dedicated to the five years of the war; there is a poignant segment where a young Iraqi photojournalist tells the camera: ""Frankly, my family doesn't know the real danger I face. I can't tell them because they will ask me to quit my job." (Stars and Stripes has had two delivery drivers and an interpreter, all Iraqis,  killed in Iraq.)

In this springtime of holidays, it feels appropriate to reflect anew on those left behind, whether they are worrying about warfighters or reporters. They are heroes in their own right, like a woman profiled in a March 20 Stripes story that was part of its excellent report on "05 YEARS in IRAQ." Anna Bruenderman was once deployed as a soldier herself. She cares for two children, is pregnant herself and helps other families in Germany cope. Her husband is now on his third deployment. Her brother was on his second when he was killed a year ago.

Then there's the story, in the same issue, of a pair of twins, born just five months before the Iraq invasion. Their father will depart soon for another deployment: 15 months that will cause him to miss yet more family milestones. As their mother, Gina Schwans, said, "So much living goes on in five years."

And then, the stoic response that could come from the mouths of multitudes waiting by the hearth: "It's just stuff you learn to live with."