They're Off (Again)
Major John didn't want to talk about it, but I do. I have to say, "Wow." The send off for the portion of the 108th Sustainment Brigade who are being deployed was done very well.
When we left for the Mobilization station early in 2004, I felt the way I imagined the Baltimore Colts did when they slunk out of town in the middle of the night.
This time the armory at North Riverside was more crowded than I had ever seen it, maybe even more so than when we came back. American Veteran Motorcycle Riders Association (AVMRA) Chapter 7 (CSM Medina and his wife are members) was there handing out stuff and helping our FRG sell tee shirts, the American Legion was making pillow cases and the USO was there passing out goodies.
Among the dignitaries, I spied the Adjutant General of Illinois, MG Enyart, the Assistant Adjutant General, Army (number 2 guy in the state) BG Celletti and Judy Barr Topinka (former Illinois State Treasurer).
They didn't have a lousy tape recorder playing a bad copy of the National Anthem; they had a real singer who would have made Wayne Messmer proud.
As I mentioned the American Legion was there. They have a special program going on. They send teams out whenever a unit is deploying and they take photos, of the soldier, of their families or both and they iron-on the photo to pillowcases. The soldier can then take along their family when they go or the spouse can continue to "sleep with" their loved one until he or she come home. It's great.
The Berwyn VFW and Chapter 7 of the AVMRA have adopted the 108th.
I don't happen to have any photos of the event myself, but WLS channel 7 was there and they did a nice piece that you can see here.
When we left for the Mobilization station early in 2004, I felt the way I imagined the Baltimore Colts did when they slunk out of town in the middle of the night.
This time the armory at North Riverside was more crowded than I had ever seen it, maybe even more so than when we came back. American Veteran Motorcycle Riders Association (AVMRA) Chapter 7 (CSM Medina and his wife are members) was there handing out stuff and helping our FRG sell tee shirts, the American Legion was making pillow cases and the USO was there passing out goodies.
Among the dignitaries, I spied the Adjutant General of Illinois, MG Enyart, the Assistant Adjutant General, Army (number 2 guy in the state) BG Celletti and Judy Barr Topinka (former Illinois State Treasurer).
They didn't have a lousy tape recorder playing a bad copy of the National Anthem; they had a real singer who would have made Wayne Messmer proud.
As I mentioned the American Legion was there. They have a special program going on. They send teams out whenever a unit is deploying and they take photos, of the soldier, of their families or both and they iron-on the photo to pillowcases. The soldier can then take along their family when they go or the spouse can continue to "sleep with" their loved one until he or she come home. It's great.
The Berwyn VFW and Chapter 7 of the AVMRA have adopted the 108th.
I don't happen to have any photos of the event myself, but WLS channel 7 was there and they did a nice piece that you can see here.
Labels: Deployment
posted by Inner Prop at 5:43 AM
2 Comments:
It looks like you're home-do you know if you'll still be in the States around the March timeframe? I'm trying to find active duty milbloggers who will be in the states at that time to offer them first preference at Winter Soldier coverage. The problem is that most stop blogging once they get back to the states! Let me know if you might be interested, or the full explanation/rules are on my site.
AS,
I will be leaving next month...so, in March I will be somewhere in Central or Southern Iraq. Thanks anyways!
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