Kade and Luke were asked to speak in the Veterans Day assembly about Jess. They told me what they remembered from the time Jess was in service and we put together a little back and forth dialogue for them to do. (The writting in red was Kade)
When I was just
three months old, my dad joined the United States Air Force.
He went to basic training for
6 weeks, where he got lots of shots, haircuts, and uniforms.
He had chemical,
biological, and nuclear defense training.
He also had weapons training, and anti-terrorism training. He heard lots of yelling, did lots of
push-ups, and ran lots of laps. Here he
began to learn how to be a very disciplined Airman.
My dad was a linguist—which
means he did lots of language translations.
Our family moved to California for a year and a half while he learned
his new language. Then we moved to Georgia where we stayed for 7 years.
My dad wore a
uniform everyday to work; either his camouflage uniform, or his Blue’s. Sometimes he left for work when we went to
school; sometimes when we got home from school; and sometimes he left for work
when we were going to bed. He would work all night while the rest of us were
sleeping.
He was tired a lot. But he never complained about his job. He just did what he was asked.
We didn’t live on
base. But whenever we went on base to go
to the park, the hospital, the grocery store, visit friends, go bowling, or
many other activities, my mom had to show her military ID badge to the armed
men at the gates to get in.
They did surprise vehicle
searches all the time. They do all this,
to make sure that the men, women, children, and information on the base, are
always kept safe.
One job my dad
loved while working at Fort Gordon, was being the Air Force deployment manager. That means he took care of all the men and
women who had volunteered to leave their families and go to the Middle
East. He made sure they were healthy
enough to go, that they had the warmest coats, the best boots, the right
weapons and ANYTHING they might
need.
Whenever a problem came up,
my dad loved that he could always
rely on those he served with. Everyone
would stay as long as was needed, and give it his all, until the problem was
solved. If one person was in trouble,
everyone else made it his or her mission to fix it.
Last year my dad
retired from the Air Force as a Staff Sergeant.
We moved to Pleasant Grove and the military now pays for him to go to
Law School.
My dad doesn’t like making a
big fuss over anything. He doesn’t ever brag
or boast about his contributions. He
doesn’t like attention; and I’m sure this is making him more then a little
uncomfortable.
But my dad served
8 years working to protect those fighting on the front lines and that is a noble work.
I’m grateful for my dad, and
for all the heroes in the United
States military!
The songs were great and the assembly was nice. Jess had to go up when the boys were reading their piece which he's not a big fan of. Julie drove down from Evanston to watch (she's adorable like that) and my parents came. Kade and Luke did great!
The boys and I went to the zoo with our good friends the Infangers--Val, Jenny and Chris and Robyn and all the kiddos. Which was awesome and so fun. I think there were around 5,000 kids between the 4 families. I'm always amazed when we walk away from an event like that with no children getting lost.
