KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — President Trump assured Americans on Wednesday Iran is standing down after the country launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq.
The strikes were in retaliation after the U.S. drone strike that killed Iran's top military leader last week.
The president said no Americans were hurt in the attack and the U.S. is launching new sanctions against Iran.
These events in the Middle East are adding emotional strain for military families with loved ones deployed.
Cait Bandel and Bernie Koprince just met, but they have one thing in common: they're military family members.
"My husband is one of the best people you'll ever meet," Bandel said. "He has been deployed now for about six months. He's in the Middle East."
Koprince's son was there, too.
He was in Iraq in 2006.
"He was killed," Koprince said. "It was 13 years ago on the 27th of December."
As conflict rises again in the Middle East, both these women know the stress military families are feeling.
"It's a struggle. It's a struggle for every military spouse," Bandel said. "Every time you hear that someone's getting deployed it hurts your heart a little bit because you know that was your loved one or it's someone else's loved one."
Koprince knows that hurt well.
"You'd hear about people being killed over there and you think, oh, that's somebody else," she said.
That's how she felt until it happened to her.
"Why is everyone else's life just going on at the level that it is, and why is everyone not just stopping and mourning my son's death and thanking him for their freedom?" she said.
Koprince and Bandel hope people remember the military is always working and many troops were already deployed before tensions grew in Iran.
"It seems like the only time that we pay attention to the news and we remember that we are at war is when there is a big insurgence, or we've killed someone who you know is really powerful," Koprince said.
These women said the best way to help at home is spend time with those military family members who are waiting for their loved ones to come home safe.
"Really, the best thing you can do is just to check in on those spouses, make sure that they're doing okay," Bandel said.
Her husband's deployment is supposed to end in March, but she knows it could be longer.