"I'll be home for Christmas. You can count on me. Please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree."
At least that's the hope of the Arkansas moms and dads who have daughters and sons enrolled at the five military service academies.
This year, the co-chairs of the All Services Academies Holiday Ball have sons at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Kathy Powers of Conway is president emeritus of the Arkansas U.S. Air Force Academy Parents Association. Her son, Isaac, is a senior and a Cadet 1st Class. Dianna Chambers of Star City is the current president of the association. Her son, Ethan, is a junior and a Cadet 2nd Class. Together, the two women are putting together the Friday ball at the Clinton Presidential Center to honor the young service men and women.
Not all of the cadets will be able to travel to Arkansas for the holidays. But Powers' and Chambers' sons will both be home.
The Air Force Parents Association serves as a support group, connecting the families of the Arkansas cadets. When the cadets are in training, there is very little opportunity for parents to talk to their children.
"There's a lot of things that go on that you have no clue about what's happening," Chambers said.
"It's a different college experience than any other," Powers added.
The parents of the older cadets provide advice and encouragement to the parents of younger students, both women agreed.
"In this day and age when you are so used to communicating on a minute-by-minute basis, to have radio silence is disconcerting as a parent," Chambers said. "So this organization is great because you get to talk to parents who have been through it about how to support your cadet and the scary things that might happen."
More than 10,000 high school students nationwide apply to be a part of the Air Force Academy annually and only about 10 percent are selected, Powers said.
"It's one of the top-ranked engineering colleges in the country and it is top-ranked in other areas," Powers said. "So it is a college education and it is very rigorous and competitive. The cadets not only have to keep up rigorous college standards, they also have to meet military and physical standards."
The job of putting on the Holiday Ball rotates among the parents of students at the different academies. Arkansas is the home state of about 200 cadets across all academies. There are four other academies -- United States Military Academy, (Army, aka West Point), United States Naval Academy (Navy and Marine Corps.), United States Coast Guard Academy and the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
The evening at the Clinton center will include dinner, speakers and a remembrance of America's prisoners of war and those missing in action. Male cadets will wear their formal military uniforms. Female cadets can wear their formal uniforms or a formal gown.
There will also be a parade of cadets who will be announced with their dates or escorts. First Lt. Mike Smith III will serve as master of ceremonies and Col. Robert Ator, retired commander of the 189th Airlift Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard, will give the keynote speech.
In addition to the ball, Chambers and Powers coordinate sending goodie boxes to the cadets, organize postcard campaigns and invite families to cookouts and other get-togethers.
"We support our son and this organization has helped us maintain a sense of normalcy -- that it will be OK. The parents [provide] comfort and answer questions," Powers said. "It has really helped us survive as a family and maintain our sanity because it can be very stressful at the academy because the stakes are so high. I mean this is a $400,000 scholarship. ... You really want them to be successful, but it is very stressful."
"It's the life-long support and the life-long friendships that I know I've made," Chambers said when asked about what the organization means to her. "I see what my son does on a daily basis and the struggles and working out, because it is also a physical thing. This is a small part that I can do to donate my time to give to the other parents and families."
When he graduates, Isaac Powers wants to go into the U.S. Secret Service, or something along those lines, his mother said.
Ethan Chambers wants to become a pilot. He already has his private pilot's license, according to his mother.
High Profile on 12/24/2017