Fort Campbell, Kentucky (CNN)  -- Maylanie Shorter sleeps with a T-shirt tucked in her pillowcase. It carries the scent of her father's cologne while he's on patrol in Afghanistan. Her younger sister, Ariana, sleeps with her Daddy Doll -- a stuffed soldier that displays a photo of her father across its face. At 14 and 10, the two girls try to maintain normalcy. They're active in school, they help with dinner, they rally around their mother. And they show no mercy for Pops over the Silver Star he earned by saving several comrades whose armored Humvee was shredded by a roadside bomb. They tease him about a photo of the burned-out vehicle. "How did you take this picture? Weren't you supposed to go get them and help?" Ariana says.
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Family of Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shorter discuss life while dad's deployed
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Shorter is on his third deployment, currently in Afghanistan
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"We have to keep going forward, stay positive," daughter says
@placeholder arrives home from Fort Campbell High School and immediately begins helping her mother prepare dinner.
@placeholder doesn't ask her dad about details from the war zone.