thedrifter
05-12-08, 08:25 AM
May 12, 2008
Money woes to limit medallion mission
By MATT LAKIN
The Knoxville News Sentinel
JACKSBORO, Tenn. — A heart attack couldn't keep Bob Parker from his mission to honor the fallen.
The Army bureaucracy couldn't stand in his way.
A shortage of money, however, almost did.
"It's out of sight, out of mind," said Parker, 74, who founded the Fallen Friend nonprofit group 13 years ago as a way to honor U.S. troops killed in action. "Unless it affects people personally, they just don't understand. There's more to this than just a hump of dirt in the graveyard. I really believe this calling is laid on me."
Parker depends on donations to give out engraved medallions to the families of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines killed in combat. He also sends medals to families of police officers killed on duty.
Parker, who orders the medals and has them engraved locally, estimates he's sent out more than 3,100 such tokens of appreciation, sometimes hand-delivering the medals himself.
Each medallion costs about $40. As donations dwindled, Parker feared he might have to give up his goal.
"When you have to depend on people for money, they just don't come through," he said.
Yearly pledges from Fox Toyota in nearby Clinton and a Wal-Mart in Jacksboro have provided enough to keep the program going, although at a reduced rate. Parker said he hopes to continue providing medals to families of fallen troops from Tennessee, but those from other states will be on their own.
Decisions like that don't come easy for Parker, who served in the Army during the Korean War. He sometimes cries when he recalls the families he's talked with and looked over photos of the fallen.
"They're just babies, most of them," Parker said. "I don't know most of these people. I've never met them, but they are a fallen friend to someone. That someone has suffered a great loss. These medallions won't fill that loss, but it's something I can do."
He stands his ground
He estimates he still has a backlog of 300 medals to send out. Parker hopes to see each one finished.
"When any of these requests are on hold, that hurts," he said. "You can see these young kids' faces. You read their stories, and you sit there and you cry, because you can't help their families. That's the reason I do what I can."
The medallions aren't Parker's only tool in his mission. He's also put together decals supporting the military and made signs spelling out his appreciation for their sacrifice.
One of those signs stands in front of the National Guard armory in Jacksboro in memory of Staff Sgt. Alfred Barton Siler, who died in a Humvee crash in Iraq in 2005.
Parker, who runs Fallen Friend out of his home in nearby Clairfield, spreads his message with the zeal of an evangelist. That zeal clashed with the military bureaucracy in 2004 when the Army briefly balked at helping to distribute the medals, inscribed with the Bible verse John 15:13:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Parker stood his ground, and the Army backed down.
"They asked me, would I take the Scripture off the medallions," he recalled. "I said, 'No way.' They changed their minds."
He hopes his organization can weather the latest storm with the same success.
"I bring all this home personally," Parker said. "Any one of these young men and women could have been mine."
Ellie
Money woes to limit medallion mission
By MATT LAKIN
The Knoxville News Sentinel
JACKSBORO, Tenn. — A heart attack couldn't keep Bob Parker from his mission to honor the fallen.
The Army bureaucracy couldn't stand in his way.
A shortage of money, however, almost did.
"It's out of sight, out of mind," said Parker, 74, who founded the Fallen Friend nonprofit group 13 years ago as a way to honor U.S. troops killed in action. "Unless it affects people personally, they just don't understand. There's more to this than just a hump of dirt in the graveyard. I really believe this calling is laid on me."
Parker depends on donations to give out engraved medallions to the families of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines killed in combat. He also sends medals to families of police officers killed on duty.
Parker, who orders the medals and has them engraved locally, estimates he's sent out more than 3,100 such tokens of appreciation, sometimes hand-delivering the medals himself.
Each medallion costs about $40. As donations dwindled, Parker feared he might have to give up his goal.
"When you have to depend on people for money, they just don't come through," he said.
Yearly pledges from Fox Toyota in nearby Clinton and a Wal-Mart in Jacksboro have provided enough to keep the program going, although at a reduced rate. Parker said he hopes to continue providing medals to families of fallen troops from Tennessee, but those from other states will be on their own.
Decisions like that don't come easy for Parker, who served in the Army during the Korean War. He sometimes cries when he recalls the families he's talked with and looked over photos of the fallen.
"They're just babies, most of them," Parker said. "I don't know most of these people. I've never met them, but they are a fallen friend to someone. That someone has suffered a great loss. These medallions won't fill that loss, but it's something I can do."
He stands his ground
He estimates he still has a backlog of 300 medals to send out. Parker hopes to see each one finished.
"When any of these requests are on hold, that hurts," he said. "You can see these young kids' faces. You read their stories, and you sit there and you cry, because you can't help their families. That's the reason I do what I can."
The medallions aren't Parker's only tool in his mission. He's also put together decals supporting the military and made signs spelling out his appreciation for their sacrifice.
One of those signs stands in front of the National Guard armory in Jacksboro in memory of Staff Sgt. Alfred Barton Siler, who died in a Humvee crash in Iraq in 2005.
Parker, who runs Fallen Friend out of his home in nearby Clairfield, spreads his message with the zeal of an evangelist. That zeal clashed with the military bureaucracy in 2004 when the Army briefly balked at helping to distribute the medals, inscribed with the Bible verse John 15:13:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Parker stood his ground, and the Army backed down.
"They asked me, would I take the Scripture off the medallions," he recalled. "I said, 'No way.' They changed their minds."
He hopes his organization can weather the latest storm with the same success.
"I bring all this home personally," Parker said. "Any one of these young men and women could have been mine."
Ellie