This breaks my heart and infuriates me on multiple levels: It’s from a story about Navy recruits having trouble getting on flights for their basic training.

Ms. Peyregne, the oldest of the group [25], quickly became the den mother. She has kept the group together, moving from hotels to the airport, and she has planned meal times. The airline’s food vouchers are valid only at airport concessions, so “if we want to eat anything, we have to go back to the airport, get a shuttle, go back through security,” she said. The week’s best meal was at Chili’s, she said — she had chicken strips, French fries and a salad. The worst was a warmed-up frozen pizza. But organizing the group has helped keep her mind off her own children, Christopher, 3, and Hayden, 1, who will be tended by her husband, Jeff, and his parents. Leaving them was not easy. When her family dropped her off on Monday at the Navy recruiter’s office, “the baby started crying as soon as I got out of the car. It was really, really bad,” she said.

First reax: Can we please get them seats?! Second reax: How can a civilized people have mothers leaving their crying babies to possibly, ultimately go off to war? It’s their choice to sign-up, I know, but it’s just such a disturbing and unnatural image. Am I wrong?