So another Thanksgiving has come and gone. I didn't think about it until after the fact,
but it was the 20th anniversary of the first time I spent a holiday
away from home - in 1992 I was somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea on the USS
Kalamazoo. I remember that we had a
pretty good turkey dinner; it was good being on a supply ship because we always
had a ready supply of fresh food since we in turn had to give it out to the
rest of the fleet. I remember thinking
that even though it stunk to be away from home for my second-favorite holiday
(Christmas obviously being in first place by several lengths) that at least I
was part of something worthwhile. This
year’s meal was something else, though. I
have seen and done some pretty awesome things in my 20+ years in the Navy, but
this event was like nothing I have ever been a part of.
A large part of the Cherry Hill, NJ community comes out to
an event at a local hotel and cheers on a bunch of sailors, soldiers and airmen
training at Ft Dix. It started 9 years
ago when a local businessman names Eric Spevak teamed up with a Jewish War
Veterans post and has grown every year. Our
caravan of 4 buses was escorted by hundreds of motorcyclists down 295 and when
we arrived we walked through a gauntlet of over 1000 people that turned out to
see us. I must have talked to over a
hundred different people, and the number that said they have been there every
year was just unbelievable. Lots of
people wanted to hug us or just touch us, it really made me want to step back
and say, “Wait, you obviously have the wrong group here. We are just heading over to Kuwait for a bit.” It really was humbling and I wish all those
on the front lines could have experienced just a little part of that. Here is a local story on the event: http://www.
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Inside we were served a feast fit for a King, feted by many
local personalities (including Ms. New Jersey 2000 and 2012, see my awesome pic)
and to cap it all off we got to see a former WWII Army Tech Sergeant get awarded
the Bronze Star. He landed on Omaha
Beach, fought his way across Europe (including the Battle of the Bulge) and
helped in the liberation of Dachau. His
paperwork was lost to history until a local news station profiled him, found
his old CO and got the award pushed up the chain of command. He is 87 now, there aren't too many of these
WWII heroes left. Then a mom got up to
talk about her son, LCPL Jeremy Kane, who had died during combat in the Helmand
Province. Very moving.
When we got back Tracy and the kids were standing in the
parking lot, which was awesome. They were
on their way up to northern New Jersey and timed the trip so we could get a few
hours together at the base’s Rec Center. Once we got past the dragon at the entrance we
got to catch up a bit, eat candy and play some games. I must have been asked a couple dozen times
today about the visit and if it was fun.
It is sort of like asking someone to describe what their pizza was like
when you are on a diet and can’t have any, I think – they were just living
vicariously through me.
We are starting to see the light at the end of the
tunnel. Between now and Dec 4th
we roll from training event to training event.
Land Navigation is followed by Movement Under Fire and Hand Grenades is
followed by Counter IED is followed by three days and nights at a pretend
Forward Operating Base, and if you are asking why I am doing any of that
training you are a couple of steps ahead of a certain service that I have
promised myself I will try not to malign.
Enough of that.
This usually begins my favorite time of the year. After Thanksgiving I am allowed to play Christmas music all I want, I start to decorate the outside and pull the inside boxes down from the attic. Is is amazing how fast the days go by between Thanksgiving and Christmas when I am home, I hope that rule holds true in Kuwait.
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