People with loved ones in the Middle East took the news of last night's military strikes with shock and grim acceptance.

Some friends and family members, who monitored the Cable News Network, saw the drama unfold. Others, like State College resident Sandra Appleyard, heard the news secondhand from friends.

Appleyard, mother of Army Spc. 4th Class Brad Appleyard, was in tears as she described the moment the news was broken to her.

"I was in the mall, looking for a pair of boots for Brad," she said. "For Christmas, for when he comes home."

Appleyard planned to attend a church service last night.

For University student Laura Frome (freshman-communications), the news broadcasts made more tangible the quiet fears that cause her to break into tears daily. In November, she learned a friend would be transferred from Hawaii to the gulf once hostilities erupted.

She is still startled when the phone rings an off-campus call.

"What I fear most is getting a phone call telling me to come home; telling me I have a funeral to go to," she said.

Snowshoe resident Theodore Bisel said the first reports of "flashes in the sky" over Baghdad didn't take him by surprise. He said he thought it was "bound to happen anyhow."

Bisel hoped Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could be knocked out overnight with an air strike so that his son, Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Bisel, would not have to go into battle.

"We got a letter from him (Tuesday), but it was written just after Christmas, and he got some time on the phone with his wife," Bisel said minutes after President Bush addressed the nation.

"He's been there for over five months," he said. "He's disgusted. If they're going to have a war there, they should just have a war and get it over with. He's sick of it."

For Appleyard, there are still shadows of doubt and anger.

"That's my son, my only son," she said. "I don't understand, maybe I'm just a little bitter tonight. I didn't think they would be foolish enough to start it."