Support our Thermal Belt troops

Our daughter brought home a young man, Don, this past weekend, a friend from college. Don seemed to be just a polite, nice young man, until our conversation turned to his current plans.

In November, he will enlist in the Marines. He knows what lies ahead. He wants to serve, to grow up.
We had friends over and everyone who learned of Don’s plans immediately felt a parental instinct. How much we all wish to see him safe and sound, with his own family, ten years from now. He is so young.

My parents’ tight group of childhood friends included a young man named Virgil.
Virgil survived World War II, like my father and our lifelong family friends. But the next generation never knew Virgil. Virgil re-enlisted for Korea, enticed by a pay incentive which he thought he needed to start a family. He died his first day on the line. Five decades later, his buddies still sharply feel the loss.

We recently received a chain email urging us to “support the troops,” noting how while we are in comfort, our servicemen are suffering, away from home, for us. It supposes to shame all who are “anti-war” for “making fun” of soldiers, for “judging” that our servicemen and women are making the world a “worse place.” How absurd.

Well, we can’t think of a single person, for or against the war, who is not adamantly for the men and women who leave the politics to others and simply go.

Sherry Eades and Jenna Marlow have started an effort here in the Thermal Belt that will give us all a chance to show our support. They have launched “Operation Support Your Soldiers,” hoping to compile a list of area servicemen and women, then to hold fundraisers to buy each of them phone cards and Christmas presents. If you have a relative serving, anywhere, call Sherry, (828) 243-9313.

“Support shows they are not alone,” Eades says. “There are people behind them, thinking of them.” Amen. — JB