Sister of Fallen Marine Finds Her Pride in the Military

Melissa Hanks didn't always take pride in her family's involvement in the military, but that started to change after Sept. 11, 2001.

"I was pretty much indifferent," said Hanks, a member and resident of Howell. "My uncle was in the Navy, my grandpa was in the Navy ... I didn't really have the pride that I do now."

As she watched the news coverage the morning of the attacks, she realized that her brother, who was training to become a Marine, would eventually be involved with the conflict ahead.

"That's what I was thinking, 'Oh my God, my brother's in the military, this is not good,'" she said. "I knew it was going to be his fight, I guess, being a Marine, being in the infantry." 

Three years later, her brother's death at Fallujah in Iraq increased her pride in the troops even more. Michael Hanks is listed on the Livingston County war memorial in front of the county courthouse in downtown Howell for his sacrifice.

Now, as the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Melissa Hanks lives to honor her brother and to support the troops in any way she can. For a while after her brother died, she said her brother's friends would contact her as a sort of counselor for dealing with the horrors of war.

"Everybody, somehow or another, needs someone to forgive them," she said. "For a while I was that guy ... I probably, in my memory, was at war even though I wasn't, because I know so many details, so many stories.

"It was more important to help them than it was for me to not listen," she said. "My brother was dead, I couldn't do anything for him. What I could do was help his friends."

Since her brother's death, she's changed other aspects of her life too. She works for a mortgage company, but now focuses more on loans for veterans' mortgages. She donates blood every 60 days. She became a moderator for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, where she helps counsel siblings of fallen soldiers, helping them to get through what she went through losing her own brother.