If he hears the term “weekend warrior” on more time, he might slug someone.

Jim Frazier was the first father of an Illinois National Guardsman to lose his child in the War on Terror. Jacob Frazier, a Bronze Star with Valor and Purple Heart recipient, was ambushed near Gereshk in Afghanistan on March 29, 2003.

It was a job both Jacob Frazier and his father were deathly serious about — not the weekend romp some perceive a guardsman’s service to be.

“He wanted to go find the people who murdered 3,000 of our citizens. That was extremely important to him,” Jim Frazier said. “I’m an old Marine. If I could have gone, I would.”

But having served with the armed forces doesn’t make losing a child any easier, he said.

“It doesn’t change anything,” he said. “Maybe understanding things, yes, but it doesn’t change anything. And beware, there was a word we never used, that the media likes to use — closure. There is none.”

Part of what makes Guard families unique is how disjointed they are from one another. They don’t live on bases, and don’t have the built-in support other military families have, Jim Frazier said.

Following his son’s death, Jim Frazier was made the senior policy advisor to the state’s lieutenant governor and helped strengthen the Illinois military family relief fund.

His son’s life fills Jim Frazier with pride and good memories that crystallize his son’s humor and caring nature prevail even as the death toll of Illinois guardsmen mounts.

One Christmas sticks out in particular, when Jacob Frazier rounded up his four siblings for a family photo as a gift for his parents.

One photo was traditional. The other had each child in horribly ridiculous poses.

“When they gave it to us they had the picture of them sticking their fingers up each other’s noses in the frame,” Jim Frazier said. “That was his idea of funny. We left the goofy one up for a long time.”