Moms whip up taste of home

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Though Chere Pedersen didn't get to spend Mother's Day with her son Alastair Addie, 19, a United States Army combat medic stationed in the Green Zone in Baghdad, she did celebrate the occasion, albeit in a unique way.

Chere, along with her husband, Flemming, and several members of the Blue Star Mothers of Southern Nevada gathered at Henderson's Culinary Institute of Las Vegas, a division of the Art Institute of Las Vegas, two days before Mother's Day and baked apple pies.

"All of the Blue Star moms have kids in the military, and several of the moms have kids who are overseas now," Chere said. "We can't be with them for Mother's Day, so we decided to bake apple pies for soldiers at Nellis (Air Force Base) who can't be with their mothers."

Blue Star Mothers of America Inc., is a national nonprofit and nonpartisan organization for mothers with children who are either currently in the military or have been honorably discharged.

"We're an organization of moms that support our kids who in the past or present have been in the service," said Susan Braun, president of Blue Star Mothers of Southern Nevada.

Braun currently has a daughter, Lisa, and a son, Jeff, in the military. Lisa, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, is stationed in the U.S., while Jeff, a sergeant and medic in the Army, is on his second tour in Iraq.

"He had been in the Army in the 1990s, and got out," she said.

Though Braun's son went into the reserves prior to Sept. 11, he re-enlisted in the Army full-time after the terrorist attacks.

"I was part of the national chapter of Blue Star Mothers, and I decided last August to start a local chapter here," she said. "We're going (to Nellis Air Force Base) and a lot of us have kids overseas, so these are our surrogate kids."

Braun said she and many of the other Blue Star Mothers members feel it is more important now than ever before to support the troops in Iraq.

"People forget that they are still over there," she said.

Flemming Pedersen is a pastry chef instructor at the Culinary Institute of Las Vegas. He said he obtained permission to host the Blue Star Mothers at the institute's kitchens and provided the moms with baking instructions and a good apple pie recipe.

Chere Pedersen said her son was stationed in Iraq last fall, just before his 19^th birthday, and he is scheduled to return to the U.S. in October.

"He works in triage. When a soldier comes in, (Alastair) is one of the first people they see," she said. "He also trains Iraqis that work in the Green Zone in emergency medical care."

She hears from him every week.

"He is awesome. He sends weekly e-mails and he signs them, 'Love from your baby son,' " she said.

Alastair Addie lived in the Las Vegas Valley for 16 years before joining the military and attended McDoniel Elementary School, Greenspun Middle School and Green Valley High School before passing his General Educational Development tests to get a high school equivalency diploma, as well as an Emergency Medical Technician license through Project Arizona Challenge.

"High School was just not working out for him," said his mother. "He went into the military at 17 with a full medical scholarship."

Addie went into basic training in Oklahoma, and his mother said he's been promoted many times since starting his military career two years ago.

"He was a private 1st class at 18 years old," she said. "He went from follower to leader. He turned his life around."

Cynthia Martinez is both a Blue and Gold Star mom, which means she has a child currently in the military and one who died while serving.

Her son Johnny is currently serving in the United States Air Force, and her son Joseph was killed in Tal Afar, Iraq, in August. He was a tank gunman.

"It's kind of like my way of dealing with my loss," Martinez said. "It's hard being a mom with kids in the military. Most people don't understand. Here, there's support for what you're going through."

Martinez said for many Blue Star Mothers, baking the apple pies was "our way of taking care of our children. We can't take care of them now, and we feel helpless about that."

"We are proud of our children. They are making sacrifices," she added.

For more information, visit www.bluestarmothers.org.