It's not like having a child who goes to war only affects the child. The entire family undergoes the disruption of having a loved one away in a foreign country and the fear that their child/husband/father could die at any moment, be terribly wounded, or be permanently affected by the mental/emotional conditions of war. It's not the same to say "I raised a combat vet" as "I raised a math professor" or "I raised a librarian." If a mother is willing to send her son off to war, that says something about her as well as about him.