thedrifter
09-07-09, 08:44 AM
September 7, 2009
Marines' send-off has all the fixings
Matthew Miller
mrmiller@lsj.com
There were biscuits and gravy, yams and green beans, apple pie and Jell-O - and 22-pound turkey that had traveled all the way from Delaware, Ohio.
This was Thanksgiving before Labor Day, a send-off for Mike and James Keck, brothers who are lance corporals in the Marine Corps and who ship out Sept. 18.
Missing holidays
They don't know where they're going - Afghanistan seems likely - but they know they will miss the holidays.
"I just thought if we could try to celebrate as much as we could before they left that we would," said Bobbi Corbit, Mike's mother-in-law. "So we decided that since Thanksgiving came first, we'd start with Thanksgiving."
Frozen turkeys are apparently hard to come by this time of year, but when Corbit told her story to the people at the Kroger on West Saginaw Highway, they put out an all-points bulletin.
Corbit received the turkey on Thursday.
"For them to fly a turkey here or drive it or however they got it here, it's just amazing," said James Keck.
He and his brother were surrounded by family on Sunday, talking by the pool at Corbit's Delta Township home, excited and nervous.
Family cares
"It's nice that our family cares enough to have something like this for us before we leave," Mike Keck said.
His wife, Jamie, was wearing his dog tags.
"I wish they were home, but it's their job," she said. "They signed up for it, so I guess I kind of signed on for it."
"It's scary, but we knew what we were getting into," added James Keck's wife, Lauren. They've been married just four months.
"This is good," she said. "We're having a good time."
Ellie
Marines' send-off has all the fixings
Matthew Miller
mrmiller@lsj.com
There were biscuits and gravy, yams and green beans, apple pie and Jell-O - and 22-pound turkey that had traveled all the way from Delaware, Ohio.
This was Thanksgiving before Labor Day, a send-off for Mike and James Keck, brothers who are lance corporals in the Marine Corps and who ship out Sept. 18.
Missing holidays
They don't know where they're going - Afghanistan seems likely - but they know they will miss the holidays.
"I just thought if we could try to celebrate as much as we could before they left that we would," said Bobbi Corbit, Mike's mother-in-law. "So we decided that since Thanksgiving came first, we'd start with Thanksgiving."
Frozen turkeys are apparently hard to come by this time of year, but when Corbit told her story to the people at the Kroger on West Saginaw Highway, they put out an all-points bulletin.
Corbit received the turkey on Thursday.
"For them to fly a turkey here or drive it or however they got it here, it's just amazing," said James Keck.
He and his brother were surrounded by family on Sunday, talking by the pool at Corbit's Delta Township home, excited and nervous.
Family cares
"It's nice that our family cares enough to have something like this for us before we leave," Mike Keck said.
His wife, Jamie, was wearing his dog tags.
"I wish they were home, but it's their job," she said. "They signed up for it, so I guess I kind of signed on for it."
"It's scary, but we knew what we were getting into," added James Keck's wife, Lauren. They've been married just four months.
"This is good," she said. "We're having a good time."
Ellie