S

was now figuring out a new plan.

Then there were the families. I introduced myself to the wives and
husbands, mothers and fathers, cousins and friends I found by the bedside, people
who had often put the rest of their lives on hold in order to stay close. Sometimes
they were the only ones I could talk to, as their loved one lay immobilized
nearby, heavily sedated or asleep. These family members carried their own
weight. Some came from generations of military service, while others were
teenage girlfriends who’d become brides just ahead of a deployment—their
futures now having taken a sudden, complicated turn. I can no longer count the
number of mothers with whom I’ve cried, their distress so acute that all we could
do was lace our hands together and pray silently through tears.

What I saw of military life left me humbled. As long as I’d been alive, I’d
never encountered the kind of fortitude and loyalty that I found in those rooms.

One day in San Antonio, Texas, I noticed a minor commotion in the
hallway of the military hospital I was visiting. Nurses shuffled urgently in and out
of the room I was about to enter. “He won’t stay in bed,” I heard someone
whisper. Inside, I found a broad-shouldered young man from rural Texas who
had multiple injuries and whose body had been severely burned. He was in clear
agony, tearing off the bedsheets and trying to slide his feet to the floor.

It took us all a minute to understand what he was doing. Despite his pain, he
was trying to stand up and salute the wife of his commander in chief.

ometime early in 2011, Barack mentioned Osama bin Laden. We’d just
finished dinner and Sasha and Malia had run off to do their homework, leaving
the two of us alone in the residence dining room.

“We think we know where he is,” Barack said. “We may go in and try to
take him out, but nothing’s sure.”

Bin Laden was the world’s most wanted man and had eluded detection for
years. Capturing or killing him had been one of Barack’s top priorities when he
took office. I knew it would mean something to the nation, to the many
thousands of military service members who’d spent years trying to protect us
from al-Qaeda and especially to all those who’d lost loved ones on September 11.

I could tell from Barack’s grim tone that there was much still to be resolved.
The variables were clearly weighing heavily on him, though I knew better than