They were members or friends of Military Families Speak Out, an organization of military families around the world who are opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and who have a loved one currently in the Armed Forces who has served in the military since 9/11 or who has died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

On Tuesday, Aug. 31, however, Brunicardi received a temporary salve for her trauma. She and nine others – fellow military family members and an Air Force veteran who served during the war, all scarred by the last two decades of conflict – sat under an awning in a Long Beach backyard and listened to President Joe Biden say what they had longed to hear:

“My fellow Americans,” Biden said, “the war in Afghanistan is now over.”