As Americans celebrated Memorial Day on Monday, Petal resident Cody Brown – who serves as a Chief Warrant Officer for the Mississippi Army National Guard – continues to keep in touch with his family and honor the holiday with a small keepsake from home: a tiny toy dog that is traveling with him on his stops during deployment.
The dog, which belongs to Cody’s daughter Lizzie, recently became his companion one morning while he was getting ready to ship out and found the toy in one of his boots. Since then, Cody takes a picture with the dog – now named Little Chief, after Cody’s “chief” title – at each one of his stops and posts the photos on Facebook each day as a way to reach out to his three daughters and his wife, Catherine.
“It was a kind of ‘by chance’ thing,” Catherine said. “He always tries to do something to connect the kids to what he’s doing in an age-appropriate way.
“So last time, he told my two-year-old that he was going to save the princess, and she didn’t know that the princess was her. Since he found the dog in his shoe, he’s taken pictures of it every day to send to (the kids).”
Since his original deployment in 2004, Cody has been to Iraq twice and is currently headed to his second tour in Kuwait. So far, Little Chief has accompanied Cody to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, where Cody is mobilizing.
Little Chief shows up in posts with captions such as “checking my mirrors before moving through the ‘snake pit’ for staging” and “Little Chief is driving the mouse today.”
“It just gives (Cody) a way to stay connected to the kids in an age-appropriate way,” Catherine said. “The kids are excited to find out where Little Chief has been that day, or what he’s been doing.”
Cody and Catherine met on Cody’s two-week leave during his 2009 deployment to Iraq. The two have been a couple for 15 years and will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in December.
They have three daughters: Lillie, 7; Lizzie, 2; and Callie, seven weeks. Cody left out for his current deployment just five weeks after Catherine gave birth to Callie.
His previous deployment was when Lillie was two years old. This current deployment is the first during which Cody has had to leave all his daughters and his wife at the same time.
“Memorial Day is one of those times where yes, we honor soldiers, but I think a lot of people don’t know what the real meaning of Memorial Day is,” Catherine said. “It’s honoring those who have fallen.
“Soldiers know this is their day to honor, to honor the ones who have fallen.”
