WASHINGTON - Two military families shared their stories - one of perseverance through deployment, one of recovering from a life-changing war injury - with the nation Thursday.

The families, and the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, appeared along with First Lady Michelle Obama and journalists Tom Brokaw and Bob Woodward on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." The episode, "The Bravest Families In America," aired Thursday.

The first family to appear, former Army Sgt. Corey Brest, his wife, Jenny, and their two children, live in the small town of Yankton, S.D.

Brest was serving in Iraq with his National Guard unit when a roadside bomb wounded him in 2005. The injury left him nearly blind and unable to move or speak as he once did.

Jenny said she has gone from being wife to caregiver, and though she accompanies and encourages the man she calls "the love of my life" to job training sessions and speech and physical therapy appointments, their lives will never be the same.

"Our biggest sacrifice is time," she said. "When we picked up the pieces at the hospital, we lost time there because I left home and I missed our son's first steps, his first words. We both missed it. Even here without [Corey's] sight, he feels like he's missing out. Yes, he's living every moment with us, but he's not getting to see his kids grow up."

Brokaw comes from the same small town as the couple, and helped to arrange their appearance on the show. Author of the World War II book "The Greatest Generation," he has in recent years striven through his writing and speeches to bring America's attention to today's veterans and how their lives, and their families' lives, have been changed by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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