thedrifter
12-25-08, 06:20 AM
December 25, 2008
Soldiers' bond is strong
The military is family - and Christmas is about family
By Howard Wilkinson
hwilkinson@enquirer.com
This is the day that binds us together.
Family to family; friend to friend. Even stranger to stranger.
But few bonds are as strong as those between soldiers - men and women who don the uniform and who, too often, find themselves spending this day of peace in a state of war.
This is the story of two such men.
One is Spc. T.J. Giannetti, a 21-year-old soldier who will find himself this Christmas morning in a bleak forward base in a part of Iraq where the violence won't loosen its grip, half a world away from his parents and sister in Goshen
The other is Staff Sgt. Ralph F. Steward Jr., 37, of Hillsboro, known to friends and family as "Frankie." He will spend this Christmas surrounded by his family - his wife, Amy, his four children, his parents - but they will be gathered around his hospital bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he has been since mid-November, when he lost a leg in an explosion while patroling a village north of Baghdad.
Great distances will separate these two soldiers this Christmas morning. But, in their hearts, they will be at each other's side.
Two Thanksgivings ago, T.J. was a raw young soldier of the 1-25th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, stationed just about as far away from Goshen as you can be and still be in the United States - at Fort Wainwright, an Army base in Alaska.
His parents, Tom and Vickie Giannetti, had known Sgt. Steward's father, Ralph Sr., for many years. They worked together at a surgical-appliance manufacturing company in Wilmington.
Ralph Sr. knew that the Giannettis' only son was stationed at the same Alaska base as his own son, a member of the same unit. He called Frankie and told him about the young Goshen soldier who would spend his first holiday alone.
"I said, 'You invite that boy over to your place for Thanksgiving,' " Ralph Sr. said. "I knew he would do it, too - that's the way my son is; he looks after young soldiers. He brought T.J. home for Thanksgiving and he became part of the family."
It began a lasting friendship. Frankie Steward is a veteran soldier with 18 years in the Army, and he had two combat deployments before this latest one, which ended in a bomb blast in Iraq on Nov. 9. He became a mentor to T.J., as he had to so many young soldiers over the years.
"Frankie was always there for T.J.," said his father, Tom Giannetti. "When T.J. needed to talk to someone, he would turn to Frankie. I can't tell you how much he looks up to him."
Less than a year after that Thanksgiving gathering, the two soldiers found themselves being shipped out to Iraq for a tour of duty - Frankie's third, T.J.'s first. They landed in September in a region north of Baghdad where the insurgents still have a foothold and where bombings and gunfire are both frequent and deadly.
On Nov. 9, T.J. was back at the 1-25th's forward operating base when Frankie led a patrol through a village to flush out insurgents.
He and several other soldiers were sweeping an abandoned house when one of the infamous IEDs - improvised explosive devices - that have killed and maimed so many soldiers and Marines over the past 5½ years exploded, throwing shrapnel into Frankie and two of his fellow soldiers.
All three soldiers - Frankie, Sgt. Neil Boyd of Louisiana and Spc. Isaac Jensen of Utah - suffered horrible wounds and ended up together at Walter Reed a few days later. They all remain there today, facing months of being fitted for prosthetic limbs and physical therapy.
On Monday, all three were visited by President George W. Bush, who awarded them Purple Heart medals for combat wounds.
But T.J., back at the unit's forward base, knew nothing of this until nearly two weeks later. He was almost constantly running missions with his own company of the 1-25th and could rarely phone home.
When he did phone home, his father told him the bad news about Staff Sgt. Steward and the other soldiers. He learned about his friend's extensive injuries - losing his right leg below the knee, and an injury to his face that has doctors still scrambling to save his right eye. And he was told that Frankie's family - father Ralph, mother Jennifer, and the four children - had gathered in Washington to be at Frankie's side, as had the families of the other two soldiers.
"He told us that he wanted us to take money out of his checking account, that he wanted to do something for those families," Tom Giannetti said. "He knew those families were going to have to spend long days at the hospital, and he wanted to help them get through it."
T.J.'s father told him he would go to Washington and deliver the gifts himself.
T.J. had wanted his father to buy gift baskets for all three families, but that wasn't practical. So Tom Giannetti and his wife loaded big cloth bags full of snacks, soft drinks, and toys and games for the children and took them to Walter Reed, where they distributed them to the Steward, Boyd and Jensen families.
"My son was a good young man when he went into the Army, and he is going to leave an even better man,'' Tom Giannetti said.
"This is the kind of thing he would have done for anybody in need. But there is a special bond with his fellow soldiers. And that extends to their families."
But the giving was not over yet.
When their son deployed to Iraq, Tom and Vickie Giannetti joined the Military Support Group, a gathering of military families that meets the second Wednesday of every month at the American Red Cross office in Blue Ash.
At the meetings, each family lets the others know what is happening with their loved ones who are in the military.
At the November meeting, the Giannettis told the group about Frankie's injuries, his friendship with their son, and how the four Steward children - who range in age from 8 to 17 - were looking at the prospect of a very bleak Christmas.
The group decided then and there that at the December meeting - a pot-luck dinner where they celebrate the season - everyone would bring a gift card that the Steward family could use to buy Christmas gifts and take care of their other needs.
At the December meeting, about $500 in gift cards were collected for the Stewards, and another $500 for a second military family the Military Support Group had adopted for Christmas.
Ralph Sr., Frankie's father, said his son faces a long, rough road to recovery, a road that will be shared by his wife and children.
"It's difficult. It really is," Ralph Sr. said. "But to have young men like T.J., who would do something like that for you - and people like the Military Support Group, people Frankie has never met - makes the road easier.
"People in the military are family," Ralph Sr. said, "and Christmas is all about family."
Ellie
Soldiers' bond is strong
The military is family - and Christmas is about family
By Howard Wilkinson
hwilkinson@enquirer.com
This is the day that binds us together.
Family to family; friend to friend. Even stranger to stranger.
But few bonds are as strong as those between soldiers - men and women who don the uniform and who, too often, find themselves spending this day of peace in a state of war.
This is the story of two such men.
One is Spc. T.J. Giannetti, a 21-year-old soldier who will find himself this Christmas morning in a bleak forward base in a part of Iraq where the violence won't loosen its grip, half a world away from his parents and sister in Goshen
The other is Staff Sgt. Ralph F. Steward Jr., 37, of Hillsboro, known to friends and family as "Frankie." He will spend this Christmas surrounded by his family - his wife, Amy, his four children, his parents - but they will be gathered around his hospital bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he has been since mid-November, when he lost a leg in an explosion while patroling a village north of Baghdad.
Great distances will separate these two soldiers this Christmas morning. But, in their hearts, they will be at each other's side.
Two Thanksgivings ago, T.J. was a raw young soldier of the 1-25th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, stationed just about as far away from Goshen as you can be and still be in the United States - at Fort Wainwright, an Army base in Alaska.
His parents, Tom and Vickie Giannetti, had known Sgt. Steward's father, Ralph Sr., for many years. They worked together at a surgical-appliance manufacturing company in Wilmington.
Ralph Sr. knew that the Giannettis' only son was stationed at the same Alaska base as his own son, a member of the same unit. He called Frankie and told him about the young Goshen soldier who would spend his first holiday alone.
"I said, 'You invite that boy over to your place for Thanksgiving,' " Ralph Sr. said. "I knew he would do it, too - that's the way my son is; he looks after young soldiers. He brought T.J. home for Thanksgiving and he became part of the family."
It began a lasting friendship. Frankie Steward is a veteran soldier with 18 years in the Army, and he had two combat deployments before this latest one, which ended in a bomb blast in Iraq on Nov. 9. He became a mentor to T.J., as he had to so many young soldiers over the years.
"Frankie was always there for T.J.," said his father, Tom Giannetti. "When T.J. needed to talk to someone, he would turn to Frankie. I can't tell you how much he looks up to him."
Less than a year after that Thanksgiving gathering, the two soldiers found themselves being shipped out to Iraq for a tour of duty - Frankie's third, T.J.'s first. They landed in September in a region north of Baghdad where the insurgents still have a foothold and where bombings and gunfire are both frequent and deadly.
On Nov. 9, T.J. was back at the 1-25th's forward operating base when Frankie led a patrol through a village to flush out insurgents.
He and several other soldiers were sweeping an abandoned house when one of the infamous IEDs - improvised explosive devices - that have killed and maimed so many soldiers and Marines over the past 5½ years exploded, throwing shrapnel into Frankie and two of his fellow soldiers.
All three soldiers - Frankie, Sgt. Neil Boyd of Louisiana and Spc. Isaac Jensen of Utah - suffered horrible wounds and ended up together at Walter Reed a few days later. They all remain there today, facing months of being fitted for prosthetic limbs and physical therapy.
On Monday, all three were visited by President George W. Bush, who awarded them Purple Heart medals for combat wounds.
But T.J., back at the unit's forward base, knew nothing of this until nearly two weeks later. He was almost constantly running missions with his own company of the 1-25th and could rarely phone home.
When he did phone home, his father told him the bad news about Staff Sgt. Steward and the other soldiers. He learned about his friend's extensive injuries - losing his right leg below the knee, and an injury to his face that has doctors still scrambling to save his right eye. And he was told that Frankie's family - father Ralph, mother Jennifer, and the four children - had gathered in Washington to be at Frankie's side, as had the families of the other two soldiers.
"He told us that he wanted us to take money out of his checking account, that he wanted to do something for those families," Tom Giannetti said. "He knew those families were going to have to spend long days at the hospital, and he wanted to help them get through it."
T.J.'s father told him he would go to Washington and deliver the gifts himself.
T.J. had wanted his father to buy gift baskets for all three families, but that wasn't practical. So Tom Giannetti and his wife loaded big cloth bags full of snacks, soft drinks, and toys and games for the children and took them to Walter Reed, where they distributed them to the Steward, Boyd and Jensen families.
"My son was a good young man when he went into the Army, and he is going to leave an even better man,'' Tom Giannetti said.
"This is the kind of thing he would have done for anybody in need. But there is a special bond with his fellow soldiers. And that extends to their families."
But the giving was not over yet.
When their son deployed to Iraq, Tom and Vickie Giannetti joined the Military Support Group, a gathering of military families that meets the second Wednesday of every month at the American Red Cross office in Blue Ash.
At the meetings, each family lets the others know what is happening with their loved ones who are in the military.
At the November meeting, the Giannettis told the group about Frankie's injuries, his friendship with their son, and how the four Steward children - who range in age from 8 to 17 - were looking at the prospect of a very bleak Christmas.
The group decided then and there that at the December meeting - a pot-luck dinner where they celebrate the season - everyone would bring a gift card that the Steward family could use to buy Christmas gifts and take care of their other needs.
At the December meeting, about $500 in gift cards were collected for the Stewards, and another $500 for a second military family the Military Support Group had adopted for Christmas.
Ralph Sr., Frankie's father, said his son faces a long, rough road to recovery, a road that will be shared by his wife and children.
"It's difficult. It really is," Ralph Sr. said. "But to have young men like T.J., who would do something like that for you - and people like the Military Support Group, people Frankie has never met - makes the road easier.
"People in the military are family," Ralph Sr. said, "and Christmas is all about family."
Ellie