Flat Daddies

The Amherst Times reported yesterday on a program of the Maine National Guard.

The Maine National Guard is giving life-size from-the-waist-up pictures of soldiers to the families of deployed guard members. Guard officials and families say the cutouts, known as Flat Daddies or Flat Soldiers, connect families with a relative who is thousands of miles away. The Flat Daddies are toted everywhere from soccer practice to coffee shops to weddings.

“The response has been unbelievable,” said Sgt. First Class Barbara Claudel, director of the Maine National Guard’s family unit. “The families just miss people so much when they’re gone that they try to bring their soldier everywhere.”

The Maine National Guard has given out more than 200 Flat Soldiers since January. While other guard units are recommending Flat Soldiers, and families around the country are using them, officials here say Maine’s National Guard is the only one giving one to each family that asks.

This is such a great idea.

No, Flat Daddy can't possibly replace the real one, but it helps.

When I was about ten years old, my dad's submarine was sent out on WestPac for six months, and then again when I was twelve (one of those times stretched into nine months). I remember trying to bring my father's face to mind after he'd been gone a while and not being able to and then feeling like I was a bad daughter because I couldn't. It seemed wrong to have to look at his picture to remember what he looked like. (The fact that I can't bring anybody's face to mind clearly--my mind doesn't work that way--never occurred to me.)

I think if we'd had a Flat Daddy, just seeing him all the time and having him with us might have kept me from trying to remember his face and failing.

The article tells the stories of several families, some with small children whose Flat Daddy helped them recognize their daddy when he cames home. Here's the story they close with:

Parents of young deployed soldiers are also using flat soldiers. Carol Campbell of Anson, Me., got a flat version of her 24-year-old daughter, Jessica, who now sits at the family’s kitchen table. Ms. Campbell writes all of the places Jessica has visited on the back of the cutout. In June, Flat Jessica even chaperoned an after-prom party that her younger sister attended.

Ms. Campbell said that her youngest daughter thought the idea was odd at first, and that their dog, Speckles, used to bark at the Flat Soldier, but that both are now used to it.

“At first, it can take you aback, but it never did for me,” Ms. Campbell said. “I just felt like her presence is here. The Flat Soldier does provide comfort, and we’ll take it any way we can.”