For many of them, it’s their first Easter away from their kids. The first time they won’t be home to help them dye the eggs and put the finishing touches on their Easter baskets before they wake up.
They’re halfway around the world in Poland right now on deployment with their California Army National Guard unit from the Valley – the 746th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion headquartered in Van Nuys.
They’ve been there since February doing a job for their country that needs to be done, but that doesn’t make it any easier to be away from their kids on Easter morning.
Sometime today, they’ll be a ping on their cell phone and they’ll open their Face Book page to find the most beautiful photo they’ve ever seen — their son or daughter smiling ear-to-ear, holding their Easter baskets.
Gifts from the men of American Legion Post 520 in Sunland — mostly Vietnam veterans now — and their women’s auxiliary. They promised the 746th they’d keep an eye on their kids while they were gone — make sure they didn’t miss out on big days like this.
If anyone knows how important it is for the morale of our troops to have support from the people back home, it’s Vietnam veterans. What they never got, they are now giving.
The call came in a few weeks before Christmas last year. It was from a young National Guard female sergeant wanting to know if Post 520 would consider helping sponsor a holiday party.
Her unit was being deployed in February and they wanted to make this Christmas party special for their kids. Everybody in the unit had chipped in, but with bills to pay, and future paychecks iffy while they were gone, the party they could afford was well short of special.
“I spent 28 years in the National Guard, I know what it’s like leaving your family when you’re deployed to active duty,” says Robert Houle, finance officer for Post 520 — the money guy.
He didn’t have to twist many arms to get the post to help with giant gift baskets everyone received at the Christmas party. Backing active duty troops is a major part of the American Legion’s service statement — “Continued devotion to our fellow service members and veterans.”
Too many people think long time military service organizations, like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, are just clubs for old vets to hang out in and tell old war stories.
They don’t see them down on Skid Row on sweltering days providing cold water and food for homeless vets or showing up at military hospitals unannounced with boxes of Girl Scout cookies and an open ear for sick, old veterans to talk out their feelings with someone who understands.
That Christmas party Post 520 threw for the families of the 746th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion was a huge success, but it was only the beginning. Houle called Staff Sergeant Paola Landa, a member of the guard unit’s rear detachment, and told her Post 520 was all in for the year.
Whatever support the 746th needed back home, they’d get.
“You don’t know how much this means to us and is appreciated,” Sgt. Landa says. “It brings us all together and gives me the opportunity to see and talk to their kids all in one place to find out if there’s any other support that can be offered.”
After that Christmas party, the next event was “Send Off” day in February. Post 520 showed up with care packages and boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
“Nothing brings home more to a soldier on active duty than Girl Scout cookies,” Houle says. “We bought hundreds of boxes, and we’ll buy more for this Memorial Day when another shipment of care packages goes to Poland.
“We made a promise to support the 746th back home, and that’s a promise our Vietnam veterans are dead serious about,” he says. “They know how much it means.”
Dennis McCarthy’s column runs on Sunday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.