As she sorts through the many emotions surrounding her 22-year-old son’s upcoming deployment to Iraq, Janis Dearman knows she’s not alone.

But the strong support network she’s developed through church and family somehow still isn’t enough when it comes to her youngest child’s first tour of duty, she says.

“I want to have an association with other mothers who are going through the same thing I am,” said Mrs. Dearman, of East Brainerd. “There’s this combination of pride and patriotism and fear about the potential harm. It’s not political. It’s not partisan. There are just so many things involved, and it helps to have the support and encouragement of people who understand.”

In order to make that happen, she’s having to establish a new chapter of the Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc., a 66-year-old, Department of Defense-sanctioned organization famous for the star-adorned flags its members hang in their windows.

Mrs. Dearman is holding an organizational meeting today in Cleveland, Tenn., to drum up interest.

The group has 127 chapters in 44 different states, according to its Web site. But for some reason, Mrs. Dearman said, none of the countless military families in Tennessee were part of any organized Blue Star chapters until a group was chartered out of Knoxville in September.

Starting that group took “a lot of work and a lot of time,” according to its president, Teresa McGhee, who explained that chapters must have at least five active members.

It was worth it though, she said. The group helps raise money for the troops, puts together packages to send abroad and provides a great deal of emotional support at monthly meetings.

“It can be difficult as a parent, knowing there is the possibility of danger, and that anything can happen,” she said. “I honestly don’t know why there hadn’t been any (local Blue Star chapters) already.”

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