LAYTON—Hill Air Force Base (HAFB) brings families from all over the country to Davis County and sometimes moving around all of the time and starting over can be hard – especially on the kids. April is Month of the Military Child, a time to focus on helping children feel welcome in their new surroundings. 

Joy Cornelius, whose husband is Col. Daniel Cornelius, 75th Air Base Wing and Installation Commander at HAFB shared her experiences as a military family at a recent Davis Chamber Women in Business meeting. Cornelius emphasized the importance of community and looking for ways to help the kids.

“I kind of knew what we were getting into,” she said. “But the kids did not.”

Cornelius said when they moved to Hill her daughter was in her senior year of high school. “It was so, so hard. She’d been playing soccer at her other school but she didn’t make the team here. She was following her friends on social media and watching them play which was tough.”

F-35s are flying around but behind that are kids trying to figure it out and make their way, she said. “What can we do to help the kids?”

Here especially, there's open lunch, said Cornelius. “That’s paralyzing to a military kid. They don’t know where to go. They don’t know the time limit. You don’t know how you’re getting there and how you’re getting back.”

When they’ve just moved here they may not drive or have a car, she said. “That is the worst thing for military kids is lunch because you walk in and you don’t know anybody and everybody already has a group. Tell your kids to always make sure nobody is sitting alone.”

Cornelius shared some of the experiences they have had over the last 26 years in the military. “Dan was deployed on Sept. 11,” she said. “Right before Sept. 11 I miscarried and my grandmother was dying. For the first time I couldn’t go home. I was away going through what I was going through and Dan was deployed.”

Later while they were stationed in Germany, their daughter Lauren was born six weeks early, said Cornelius. “Dan was deployed and missed her birth. He was worlds away and I couldn’t call him because I didn’t want to scare him.”

There was an Air Force surgeon at the hospital where Lauren was born that had become a dear friend, she said. “He helped me throughout my labor and delivery because Dan was gone.” Before Lauren was born he said, “Joy, there’s this one gentleman that I fear is not going to make it. I had to amputate three of his limbs. I had his heart in my hands trying to save him. His dad just said, ‘don’t let him be cold. He doesn’t like to be cold.’ So I put a blanket on him.”

After Lauren was born they whisked her away,” Cornelius said. “I couldn’t be with her right then so I went to my room. Then I heard code blue and everybody running. It was 20 minutes later and the surgeon told me ‘I did everything I could to save him but I lost him.’”

So here was Lauren born at 12:08 and that gentleman died 20 minutes after her, she said. “That’s the real world – a celebration of birth. I can’t imagine what that family was going through then.”

With the highs and lows of military life and what it encompasses it means so much to have a community, said Cornelius. “You hear about the community at Hill but actually being here and experiencing it is a whole other level. It’s incredible.”