The loved ones of military service members in San Diego said they are fearful of Iran's response to United States President Donald Trump's ordering of a deadly air-strike on its top general.
"It was a little emotional for me," said military wife Karli McCarthy as she was shopping with her family at Trader Joe's store at Liberty Station. Her family has a long line of military ties including her father.
"My dad is in the Army National Guard Reserve, they have been training for this, waiting for this," McCarthy said.
Families told NBC 7 they are concerned about Iran's threats to retaliate after the Trump Administration's strike on against the Iranian official, Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
As the threats reverberated around the world, the McCarthy family said they look for support from each other and from above.
"We pray over our family; we pray over everyone serving," said McCarthy's husband Ryan as he held their five-month-old son.
Ashley Mohr, a mother of two and wife to a U.S. Marine of eight years, said the president's announcement Friday to send more than 3,000 troops to the Middle East did not surprise them but that does not make her less afraid for her loved ones.
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"My husband got a call from one of his friends saying, 'Here we go man, I mean, it’s time to gear up,' within minutes, all the Marines, the whole base was on lockdown, Mohr said. "We had chills because the second something like (the strike) happens our husbands are leaving."
Her husband is not up for deployment this time, but her friends' husbands are leaving. If that stress was not hard enough, she also said she is seeing a lack of support among her own non-military community.
"It’s the support of the people who aren’t in the military that hurts us the most," said Mohr. "They just don’t have our backs, whether you believe in the war or whatever happened, our husbands are going no matter what.
"You have to support us, you have to support the flag, that is what they are fighting for -- our freedom."
She supports the rallies against sending troops but wants Americans to understand they still need to support the troops.
"They will put their boots on the ground and some won't come home and that is the hardest part for me is, people get angry at our husbands and they go no matter what," explained Mohr.
Mohr said it's painful for her to see and hear the anger on social media, claiming she had to physically remove a symbol of her military pride to protect her family.
"My husband told me to take the sticker off of our car that says USMC on it because we are scared of the threats here," said Mohr.
Another military family member, Jessica Fay, said when she gets nervous about the tension between the U.S. Iran, she calls her cousin in the Air Force.
"That is what I have done when I am scared, I text my cousin, I'm like, 'Should I be worried?, she is like, 'No, not at all. We’ve got this,'" Fay said.
