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The Promise We Carry
We Are Seen. We Are Known. We Are Remembered.
The story of the military child has often lived quietly, held in memories, moves, transitions, and the spaces between worlds.
The Promise We Also Carry
The Promise We Also Carry is the commitment to ensure that this story is not invisible, not forgotten, and not dismissed as background to someone else’s service.
It is the promise that:
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Our identity has value
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Our experiences have meaning
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Our voices matter
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Our legacy continues beyond childhood
This promise is collective, held by youth, families, caregivers, alumni, and communities who share this life.
The Promise
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We promise to see the military child.
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We promise to hear their story.
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We promise to honor their identity.
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We promise to carry their legacy forward.
Not as dependents.
Not as shadowed by service.
But as torchbearers of memory, culture, connection, and future leadership.
How The Promise Lives
The Promise We Carry is lived out through:
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Recognition of military child identity across institutions and communities
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Belonging built in shared cultural spaces like the Pavilion and Summit
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Visibility in storytelling, art, performance, and public acknowledgment
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Continuity across generations, youth and alumni standing together
This promise does not end at age 18.
It continues through adulthood, into how we love, lead, work, remember, and shape the world.
A Legacy of Identity
The Promise We Carry reminds us:
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We are not defined by the places we’ve left.
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We are shaped by everything we carry forward.
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We rise, not alone, but together.
The Home Front
In the fire fight, when bullets tear the air, we know without words: if I do not make it home, my brothers and sisters will guard my children's SIX. At MCWE 2026 - We’re your six.
The Code is not carried by soldiers alone. It is lived every day at home.
Military Spouses are not dependents. They are partners. While their loved ones fight on one front, they hold the line on another.
Military Girlfriends, Boyfriends and Fiancées live by an unspoken code of hope, waiting, longing, believing in a future where service and sacrifice give way to family and home.
Military Children inherit both the pride and the burden of service. They see parents not only as mothers or fathers but as heroes. Among themselves, they share a quiet code of belonging, forged in both pride and fear.
When the uniform comes home with scars visible or hidden, the Caregivers rise. They take up a new badge of honor, standing side by side with the wounded, carrying the weight of care and resilience.
For the Special Forces operator, the code runs deeper still. The signal, the look, the prayer, the sacrifice. One another first. Always.
Brother is more than a word, it is forged in fire, written in blood, sealed in silence.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
KIA, POW, MIA, and Gold Star Families
The Promise of the Six also honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and those who remain missing yet never forgotten.
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KIA (Killed in Action): They carried the flag to its final measure. Their families now bear the honor and the grief of freedom’s cost.
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POW (Prisoners of War): Enduring captivity, they embody courage under unimaginable weight. Their resilience is eternal.
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MIA (Missing in Action): The empty chair, the silent place at the table, reminds us that the story is not complete until every warrior is accounted for.
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Gold Star Families: They carry a badge of honor no one seeks but all respect. Their sacrifice echoes through generations, their courage a testament to love and loss intertwined.
The Spirit of the Six
The Promise of the Six extends beyond the battlefield. It is alive in every circle of service:
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The soldier who vows, "If I fall, my brothers or sisters and community will stand in for my children."
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The community who vows, If you are gone, we will carry your name, your honor, your legacy.
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The children who vow, If my parent serves, then I, too, carry the torch of service.
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The nation who vows, We will never forget the fallen, the missing, or those who bear the Gold Star.
America's 250 Reflection
As we celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary, we remember: the story of our nation is also the story of its military families, its Gold Star families, and those who stood watch yet did not return.
From the birth of America in 1776 to today, these sacred bonds of brotherhood, sisterhood, and remembrance have carried our nation forward.
The Military Child World Expo 2026 exists to honor that code, the Promise of the Six, and to remind us, that the story of America is the story of its military families, its sacrifices, and its unbroken promise across generations.