Gold Star parents launch Operation 300 in honor of son whose life was lost in Afghanistan

A Gold Star household goes the additional mile to assist households who’ve suffered an identical loss, launching a program to have interaction Gold Star youngsters, in honor of their son, Aaron, who died serving in Afghanistan. 

Gold Star dad and mom Billy Vaughn and Karen Vaughn joined “Fox & Pals Weekend,” Sunday, to debate how they’re utilizing their group, Operation 300, to assist youngsters who’ve misplaced dad and mom whereas serving. 

“After when Aaron died, he left behind two little infants, a son who was not fairly two years outdated and a daughter that was solely 9 weeks outdated,” Karen advised co-host Pete Hegseth. 

“And so his widow stored asking us, ‘who’s going to show my youngsters to do the issues Aaron would have taught them to do,’ which spawned an thought, and our household and our daughter, Tara, and Billy really simply included the thought and turned it into actuality.”

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“We’d host weekend-long journey camps for youths whose dads had died throughout this warfare, paired them up with fathers, eight male mentors, and allow them to spend per week and doing all of the issues they might have finished with their dad if he was nonetheless right here,” she continued. “It has simply grown exponentially via the years.”

Per the group’s web site, their mission assertion is to supply mentorship to youngsters of the fallen, honor the sacrifice of those that’ve given their all for our freedom, and promote patriotism and repair.

The non-profit was impressed by Aaron Carson Vaughn, who died on August 6, 2011, on the deadliest day in SEAL Workforce Six historical past when a Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. 

“It is actually exhausting to place it into phrases after we’ve misplaced so many courageous women and men,” Billy mentioned. “So many households affected ceaselessly.”

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The U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan again in August 2021, marking the top of the two-decade warfare in what’s now the Taliban-controlled nation. 

“That is the primary Memorial Day in 20 years that we’ve not had little kids at warfare on the soil of Afghanistan or Iraq,” Karen mentioned. “This can be a sacred Memorial Day, and as a nation, I feel we simply must pause and take into consideration what this implies post-war.”