Thanksgiving Thoughts from a Deployed Hero

"Well, let me start with Happy Thanksgiving.

As has been the routine of my last couple of years... I found myself today eating an MRE for Thanksgiving dinner in between planning for missions. When I was a PFC, before my first tour, I was in California, training in the dead of winter in a high desert for Iraq in OIF 4. It was a chicken and salsa MRE. cold. Then, I actually did get a thanksgiving the following year. I came home in mid October and remember my mom tearing at the dinner table because she was thankful, as well as I, that I had made it home alive. Then, the following yearI was on a boat, and I don’t think that I was able to call or email home for about 60 days because we were running missions in Somalia and Bangladesh. Now here I am. Today I had a lasagna MRE for dinner as I sat in the office alone, letting my guys get some rest before the mission and I was getting the logistics together. My thoughts always drift home. Pumpkin beer, cold winters, fires in the fire place, football, stuffing my face until I can't sit up, family, being in a safe place where I don’t have to be on guard, or worry about if my other marines are ok... are we, ok?

My mother wrote me an email saying that she feels like her emails are boring in comparison to mylife, and doesn’t know what to say.... so she writes of home and the things I described. But what she doesn’t realize is that all those things bring me closer to home. Even an email with one sentence in it saying hello, tells me I am not forgotten and left in this dark worldthat has been the last 4 years of my life. So this thanksgiving I am thankful for that. Thankful that someone out there cares about me enough to remind me of what I love about home and that if I can just keep pushing, I can make it home and experience these things again, without the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Love Ben"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving! As we are giving are thanks today, please remember those who cannot be with their families during this holiday season.

http://www.cpmsglife.org/tg/td1.html

SPONSORING FAMILIES FOR THE HOLIDAYS

We have an opportunity to provide a little assistance to several military families in both North Carolina and Texas who are enduring financial hardships. If you would like specific information on how you can contribute, please send an email to vmerg.sero@aa.com Please help bring a ray of sunlight into these families homes during this holiday season.

LETS SAY THANKS!

VMERG would like to make you aware of a great opportunity for employees and their families to show "Thanks", just in time for Thanksgiving! Xerox has partnered with Give2TheTroops, the Boys and Girls Clubs and many printing companies to sponsor this site. The cards have been created by kids all over the country.

If you go to the website, www.LetsSayThanks.com, you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and send to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.

How AMAZING it would be to get this message to everyone we know to send one!!! This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and really only takes a second.

OFFICIAL VMERG LAUNCH

VMERG officially launched at the SERO on November 13th, 2008. The event began with singing the national anthem and continued with introductions, a poem written by a wounded hero, singing Proud to be an American and ended with words of a veteran. There was an informational table open all day and apple pie and ice cream was served.

More pictures can be found on our online photo album.

FLAGSHIP FREEDOM - IN HONOR OF THOSE WHO SERVE

An American Airlines 757 and an American Eagle ATR take to the sky today carrying the message of freedom and honoring those who have served in the armed forces. The iconic yellow ribbons displayed on the aircraft tails remind anyone who sees them to say thank you to those who have served their country and to pray for the safe return of those on active duty. Employees dedicated the aircraft at a Veteran's Day observance today at DFW airport.

Check out the you tube video of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPfSkzZjGgY

Pictures can be found at: http://www.vmerg.myphotoalbum.com/