After decades of giving, she won’t slow down

SAVANNAH, Ga. – From the moment her teenage son mounted a foldout of an aircraft cockpit on his bedroom wall, she knew that he was poised to fly planes. Martha Coley, mother to two now retired Air Force pilots, recalled this, and similar aspirations-turned-accomplishments, arresting the discussion to misty-eyed silence.

Coley, an accountant in the Resource Management Division, shares related back stories with other Blue Star Mothers of America, a nonprofit organization that unites her with more than 6,000 women who gather to support their children who are, or have served, in the armed forces.