Armed Forces Appreciation Month

[Keith Outten]

The month of May is Armed Forces Appreciation month. I am wondering if we could all try and schedule either a Turn-A-Thon or just a simple Freedom Pen Turninig demonstration next month in our respective home towns across the country. I know that some our our turners have been really successful turning pens and collecting donations at their local County Fairs and other events and I have done well in the past at my local shopping mall. Another option is to contact a local business and ask them to host a demonstration, this will bring business into their store and promote the Freedom Pens Project/AFAM as well.

If anyone has any ideas that would help us to promote the AFAM in May please let us know.

We will definately be turning Freedom Pens at the SMC SwapMeet on May 14th.

[Ed Heuslein]

Howdy Keith:

On Sat., May 21, Armed Forces Day, the East Texas Woodturners will hold a Turn-A-Thon in Tyler, Texas. It will be the second annual TAT hosted by the Country Wood Pile, a local woodworking supply store. Results of this effort will be posted after the TAT.

Ed Heuslein
East Texas Woodturners

[Art Hendrix]

Hi Ed. Your club is doing a fine job making Freedom Pens! Just wanted to let you know that the Hunt County Woodturners appreciate your invitation to join your TAT in May. We plan to be there. With both clubs turning, it should be a great day for the FPP!

Art Hendrix

[John Lock]

For all of you who have contributed to the Freedom Pens program, here's an article that makes it so clear why we must continue to support our troops overseas. I work with Sgt Day (from the article) in his normal job and try to keep him and his family in my prayers everyday.


This story first appeared in:
Daily Press and Argus
Thursday, April 7, 2005

Family man returns home
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
March 15 was the worst day of Master Sgt. Kevin Day's life.
That was the day a sniper shot and killed his friend, Sgt. Ricky Kieffer, 36, of Ovid, who was saving a wounded soldier on the streets of Baghdad, Iraq.

Kieffer had been assigned to the hazardous mission by Day, 31 - who felt his blood run cold when he got word of the attack back at a Baghdad operation center.

"He was the kind of guy who would do anything - he'd respond immediately," recalled Day, a Marion Township resident. "That was why I had him come into that incident. I knew he wouldn't question it, he'd just go."

Kieffer was the first and only fatality in the 182nd Michigan Army National Guard Field Artillery Unit based in Detroit, which has been stationed in Iraq since January. Four other soldiers were injured in March, Day said.

Day remembers his buddy, who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his bravery, as being outgoing and always ready with a joke. The two sergeants bonded over their kids and sports during their more than two-month training last fall at the Fort Dix (N.J.) Army Base.

"The morale of the unit is back up," Day said with a heavy sigh, "but it almost crushed us."
After a rough month, he's on a two-week leave until April 17. At noon Friday, Day arrived after a three-day trip at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where he was welcomed with open arms by his wife, Wendy, 32, and kids David, 8; Craig, 7; and Allison, an infant.

With Kieffer's death fresh in her mind, Wendy Day hugged her husband a little tighter.
"It was so hard on all the wives," said the stay-at-home mom, who serves as president of the 182nd family support group. "We just kept thinking that it could have been any of our husbands."

Reclining on a dark brown leather chair in his living room Saturday afternoon, a visibly tired Day cradled his daughter contentedly sucking away on her bottle. Meanwhile, his boys - who are spitting images of him, right down to their dark military buzzcuts and blue eyes - climbed on their dad like a jungle gym, begging him to wrestle.

Day has been surprised by a multitude of changes to his household, starting with the addition of new family members: Sarah, a hamster; a guinea pig named John; and a gerbil, Alex (none of whom have had any run-ins with the cat, Souffl?.) He seemed a little squeamish as Sarah started scurrying around the room, saying the rodent reminded him a bit too much of some of the rats in his barracks.

The former computer programmer spent time marveling at his sons' gap-toothed smiles - Craig and David have each lost four teeth apiece.

"They had all their teeth when I left," Day said with a grin.
Allison has gone through the biggest transformation, as she's just started to walk and is "much more rambunctious" than her brothers were, he said. Thanks to the Internet, Day has had a chance to see his little girl grow up, though it's not the same.

"I'm just amazed at how she gets into everything," he said, stroking Allison's wispy blonde hair. "You have to constantly watch her. This morning she got into all the DVDs, all the toys."

The highlight of his visit will be celebrating his baby's one-year birthday early. Allison was born via emergency Caesarean section on May 6 last year, just one week before Day was put on alert for the Iraq war.

After months of waiting, he was deployed in October for military police training at Fort Dix. He was promoted from sergeant first class to his current rank during the winter.

Shortly after Christmas, the 182nd shipped out to Kuwait, and arrived in Iraq in time for the Jan. 30 Iraqi election. The troops manned the 31 Baghdad police stations while Iraqi police ran the polls.

The historic election made a deep impression on Day. Though 36 people were killed that day, Iraqi citizens were "resilient about it," he said. When insurgents launched a mortar shell into a line of voters in Baghdad, he said people rushed to help the injured before they were evacuated to the hospital.

"Then, five, 10 minutes later, they were back in line," recalled Day, who has served in the National Guard for 12 years. "It didn't matter if it killed them to vote - they weren't moving."

One of the first things that struck him about Baghdad was both its impressive size and utter destruction, with buildings reduced to rubble and no running water. Teeming with about 6 million people, the Iraqi capital is more than six times bigger than Detroit, Michigan's largest city.

"We have a lot of guys from Detroit in our unit," Day said, "and they say even the worst parts of Detroit look like Beverly Hills compared to Baghdad."

Day typically rises at 4 a.m. for a 20-hour day, surviving on a $50-a-week Red Bull energy drink habit.
As a sergeant in a military police unit - "MP should stand for multi-purpose," he said - he trains Iraqi police, provides convoy escorts, protects intersections from insurgents and helps design infrastructure projects, like building a soccer field for Baghdad children.

From their convoys, soldiers throw Iraqi children candy, stuffed animals, shoes and socks sent over by the family support group. Day befriended a 10-year-old nicknamed "Carlos," whom Day calls the "richest kid in Iraq." One of Carlos' many business ventures is selling stolen gasoline for cheap on the side of the road.

"I don't think he's been to school a day in his life. He's funny, definitely a little hustler. I think I gave him $5 once and I don't even know why," he recalled, shaking his head.

After more than two decades of Saddam Hussein's repressive rule and two years of war, Carlos and other Iraqis are still living in "survival mode," Day said. Baghdad is still plagued by almost daily insurgent attacks and sniper fire, like the kind that killed Kieffer. Still, he said there have been real improvements in the country, especially with the training of Iraqi police.

Upon returning to Baghdad, Day will likely have eight more months of service ahead of him.
"I just hope that when Sgt. Kieffer died, that was the worst day we had there," he said quietly.
So what does Day want more than anything?
To be home by Christmas, he replied - his wife's favorite time of year. That, and to return to his life before, to "anonymity."

"What I want," he added with a shy grin, "is to be a regular person (reporters) don't have to talk to. That's my goal."

[Bill Pealer]

I have gently urged our local WC to be involved but I have not recieved a reply. I hope that they are willing to be involved again. I do not know the req's on their part.