thedrifter
12-24-06, 12:49 PM
Holiday honors servicemen
By Nancy Darnell
Assistant Business Editor
Christmas morning in America families will face the cold separation brought on by war.
Nestled under the covers, first thoughts will be of those who are elsewhere, protecting our freedoms. Only 10 days ago, son-in-law Randy Crider quietly celebrated an early Christmas with our daughter JennyLee and their toddler, Jackson, at home in Texas. Little Bit, as I call their second son, will enter the world in May.
It isn't Randy's role as a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserves that takes him as many as 9 time zones away, but his job as a merchant mariner, first assistant engineer on the USNS LCPL Roy M. Wheat, a Military Sealift Command vessel Randy helped makeover into the roll on/roll off military prepositioning ship it is today, transporting Marines, munitions and equipment to the fight.
The Wheat honors the lone Medal of Honor winner from Mississippi in the Vietnam War, a page in history that belongs to my generation. He sacrificed his life by covering a land mine with his body to save the lives of fellow Marines.
Engraved in my memory is the image of my husband Richard, a seventh-generation Mississippian, visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, walking in silence beside Midshipman JennyLee, in the uniform of the academy where she met Randy. That moment bonded our generation to theirs in the tradition of service.
Richard's Vietnam Christmas? "I don't want to talk about it,” he says.
And who could blame him? Bob Hope was his hero, Hanoi Jane a nightmare. Scenes of protesting fellow Americans danced in their heads. War's brutality was beamed into living rooms on the nightly news.
Where Randy will be Christmas morning is a secret. The ship's mission is secret. Security-cleared e-mail will enable him to reach out to home. But our pride in him is no secret.
And it's no secret American families on Christmas will keenly feel the absence of our heroes who are preserving our way of life. God Bless them one and all.
Ellie
By Nancy Darnell
Assistant Business Editor
Christmas morning in America families will face the cold separation brought on by war.
Nestled under the covers, first thoughts will be of those who are elsewhere, protecting our freedoms. Only 10 days ago, son-in-law Randy Crider quietly celebrated an early Christmas with our daughter JennyLee and their toddler, Jackson, at home in Texas. Little Bit, as I call their second son, will enter the world in May.
It isn't Randy's role as a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserves that takes him as many as 9 time zones away, but his job as a merchant mariner, first assistant engineer on the USNS LCPL Roy M. Wheat, a Military Sealift Command vessel Randy helped makeover into the roll on/roll off military prepositioning ship it is today, transporting Marines, munitions and equipment to the fight.
The Wheat honors the lone Medal of Honor winner from Mississippi in the Vietnam War, a page in history that belongs to my generation. He sacrificed his life by covering a land mine with his body to save the lives of fellow Marines.
Engraved in my memory is the image of my husband Richard, a seventh-generation Mississippian, visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, walking in silence beside Midshipman JennyLee, in the uniform of the academy where she met Randy. That moment bonded our generation to theirs in the tradition of service.
Richard's Vietnam Christmas? "I don't want to talk about it,” he says.
And who could blame him? Bob Hope was his hero, Hanoi Jane a nightmare. Scenes of protesting fellow Americans danced in their heads. War's brutality was beamed into living rooms on the nightly news.
Where Randy will be Christmas morning is a secret. The ship's mission is secret. Security-cleared e-mail will enable him to reach out to home. But our pride in him is no secret.
And it's no secret American families on Christmas will keenly feel the absence of our heroes who are preserving our way of life. God Bless them one and all.
Ellie