I didn't want my gender to determine whether or not I could cover breaking news.

Let's get one thing straight: I am not an adrenaline junkie. Just because you cover conflict doesn't mean you thrive on adrenaline. It means you have a purpose, and you feel it is very important for people back home to see what is happening on the front line, especially if we are sending American soldiers there.

I didn't know a single female photographer who covered conflict who even had a boyfriend, much less a husband or a baby.

By the time the United States went to war with Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, I had made three trips to the country. I covered the fall of the Taliban in Kandahar and have been returning routinely for the past 14 years.

During war time, when people were injured, I was really frustrated I did not become a doctor. It's painful not being able to save people, witnessing their pain.

In 'Off to War, Voices of Soldier's Children,' kids from Canada and the United States talk about what it is like when their mother or father goes off to war - and comes home again.

What is astonishing about the social history of the Vietnam war is not how many people avoided it, but how many could not and did not.

As long as we have decided to coexist in peace, we must do so on a firm basis that will withstand time and for generations.