Sunday, November 19, 2006
By Harold Harbaugh for the Columbian

They don’t know each other, but Michael Anderson and Benjamin Dockery have a lot in common. Both are in the Army. Both are in Iraq. Both want to join a police force after discharge. Both have large, loving families in Vancouver who miss them and are about to spend a second Christmas without them in the family circle.

Michael Anderson was deployed to Iraq in August, 2006, two weeks shy of his first wedding anniversary. He’s half-way through a 5-year commitment. His wife Hannah lives in North Carolina. She will be coming home to Vancouver without Michael to share her first Christmas with new in-laws. Michael is an MP in the 82nd Airborne doing what some describe as one of the toughest jobs in the army.

His parents, Dori and Phil Anderson, didn’t expect him to choose military service. “It was a bit of a surprise to us,” Dori says and takes a deep breath. “It was his idea. He researched it. He wanted to serve his country.”

She pauses and adds, “As a mother, my first response was, but why?” And Michael replied, ‘Well, why not me?”

Dori says that there will be a big hole during the holidays since Michael is, “the life of the party in the family.” Both parents speak of his ability to organize and positively influence his four younger siblings.

They have not heard from their deployed son in two weeks and have been able to talk to him only rarely since he arrived in Iraq. They write letters and send packages, but he frequently can’t respond because of where he is stationed and what he does. Phil explains that ten day, 14 hour shifts are the norm for military police, the nearest phone is 1 12 miles away, and the line is long. There is no on-line access in the barracks or tents where Michael currently lives. When asked what they would do to contact him in a family emergency, Dori says simply, “The Red Cross. That’s it.”

Both Phil and Dori brighten and relax when they recall family Christmas traditions. Mary and Joseph start at one end of the house and travel to the manger, arriving on Christmas Eve. Lots of games are played. Both mention Christmas cookies, a complete-family activity, and Dori adds, “Michael always wants chocolate peanut butter balls.” Both parents smile, enjoying memories. “They’re hard to make, so I taught him how to do it,” Dori continues. “Michael loved...he still loves Christmas time.”

Phil nods and adds that they open one present on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas mornings past the family would still be asleep when Michael, always Michael, would demand, “OK. Everybody up!”

Both say readily that it was a very rough adjustment when Michael was sent to Iraq. When asked about support from the Vancouver community, both parents become thoughtful. Dori speaks first. “Well, I found an article in The Columbian about this moms’ support group, Mothers of Military Support, and I thought Yes! I don’t know anyone else who has a son serving. In my circle I’m the only one whose son has joined the military.” She pauses to reflect. “Until you have a son deployed, it’s hard to understand what that’s like – your own child in a war zone.”

Dori, looking toward her first Christmas in this situation, says she is still new at being the mother of a deployed soldier but learning fast. Their church has been very supportive, and she and other members are planning to send packages to Michael’s platoon. She says more than once that packages are very important to the troops and that Michael shares everything they send. “He got cookies for his 21st birthday, and his platoon went crazy because homemade cookies are really a big deal.”

She has asked Michael for names and will send individual packages for him to pass out. October to January is a good time to send chocolate, she notes, since it is too hot the rest of the year. For packages, she recommends the economical, flat rate $8.10 boxes that can be stuffed full. “I’ve really been enlightened to how critical it is that they hear from home,” Dori explains. “It makes their day – a letter, packages, wonderful.”

Phil adds reading materials to the list. “Books, Clancy – he’s big – newspapers, anything.” He always sticks a couple of sections of the newspaper into the box – the front page, the sports section. “That’s a connection to home,” Phil explains. “He can see what’s happening in Clark County.”

What’s happening in Clark County also makes it tough for the Andersons. They have support-the-troops bumper stickers on their cars, and both report occasional honking drivers who give them a thumb down gesture, or worse.

The first time it happened, Phil was surprised and confused, but now he is used to this attitude and concludes they are saying, “I don’t respect, value, or appreciate what your son is doing. That’s what it comes across to me as.” He paused meditatively. “It’s personal for us. These aren’t images on TV, that’s my son.”

Both parents speak also of community support. Just home on leave and in uniform, Michael was stopped three times at the airport by people who said, “Thank you for serving.”

Dori concludes, “My son is serving overseas and when somebody gives me a thumbs down, as a mother it’s heart wrenching.”

It’s also especially hard to understand in a season of peace and good will.

Benjamin Dockery’s family story will be told in the next “Home for the Holidays” section.

Resources

According to Liz Johnston, who provided the information below, “Veterans Organizations such as the American Legion, VFW, and Elks are a wonderful source of support for families of the deployed. They understand the ups and downs and also have an abundance of information to help those who may need it.”

American Legion
St. James in Vancouver (Jeri Flowers)
jrsunflower@comcast.net

Veterans of Foreign War
Kelso WA (Doug Reid)
dreied4u@vfw.net 3
60-442-8786cell

The Military Family Network
Megan Turak
Executive Vice President
mturak@emilitary.org
(757)722-9607

US Army WA State
Tom Riggs
tomriggs.riggs@us.army.mil

Colleen Gilbert
Wa State Veterans Administration
Colleen@DVA.WA.GOV

America Supports You holds events to help support the troops.

Pierce County's First Source allows browsers to search a local list of human resource providers.

Operation Uplinkcan request a phone card and-or make donations to help support the troops overseas or in need.

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By Rudi Williams / American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2005 - Bracelets engraved with "Until They All Come Home" were passed out to everyone close by at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here Jan. 21.
The plastic yellow bracelets serve as a symbol of patriotism as well as a symbol of thanks and support to the troops, according to their producer, Joe Spano Jr. He collaborated on the bracelet idea with Marine Corps mom Elizabeth Johnston. Her son, Lance Cpl. Joseph C. Paul served in Iraq in 2003.

In a touching moment before he deployed in January 2003, Paul, now in the Marine Corps Reserve, said he told her, "Mom, just support all of us." Johnston, of Longview, Wash., promised she would. In February 2003, she founded Mothers of Military Support, known as M.O.M.S., a non-profit organization to support troops and their families during deployment. Spano, president of Buy-Rite Inc., said he was so overwhelmed after reading about Johnston and her son on the M.O.M.S. Web site that he wanted to do something to support the troops too. So he called Johnston and told her he wanted to produce a bracelet with the words "Until They All Come Home."

During his Jan. 21 Walter Reed visit to distribute the bracelets, Spano said Johnston's words "promised her son, Joe, that she would continue to help the service men and women until they all come home."

"Although that was not a tag line, I saw it as one," Spano noted. "I thought it just had a great ring to it. I think for someone to wear that on their wrist and see it every day is a reminder that they're not all home yet and it's going to be a long time before they are and let's not forget about them. It's too easy in our prosperity here to forget."

Armed with two large boxes of the yellow plastic wristbands, Spano said his mission to Washington was to attend to the "real important issue … to get the message out."

"Right now, Iraq and Afghanistan are in the media every day, but there's going to come a day where something else is going to happen," he said. "And all of a sudden we forget very quickly, especially here in America where we have so much happening around us every day that it's very simple to forget people out there protecting us and allowing us to have those successes and prosperities in this country.

"My interest in doing these bracelets came from Elizabeth," he emphasized. "She comes to any conversation on any topic and it comes right back down to a discussion about our men and women in the military. Her passion for that is absolutely intoxicating, and you can just not help but want to help out in some way, if at all possible."

"Let's remember the troops, he added, "until they all come home."

At Walter Reed's physical therapy department, Spano gave a bracelet to Army Spc. Joey Banegas, 22, of Hatch, N.M., who was wounded in Afghanistan on Oct. 14.

"I'd seen people with them, but I wasn't sure of what they were," said Banegas, who was serving with the 25th Infantry Division. "It's good that people recognize and realize that the troops are out there and are actually waiting for them to come home," he noted. "It shows that we have a lot more support than we expected to have in the beginning.

"It makes you feel good inside because it shows that you're appreciated and that people respect you for doing what you do."

Tammy Johnson, mother of Army Spc. Chad Johnson, 21, of Lockhart, Texas, said, "I haven't seen these bracelets before, but I have mine (now)."

As she put the yellow plastic bracelet on her left wrist, she noted "this means that somebody is looking out for our soldiers and they really care. If our soldiers over there know that we really care, they can do their job a lot better and maybe protect themselves more and come home to us."

Her son arrived at Walter Reed on Oct. 9 from Landstuhl (Germany) Regional Medical Center. He had served with the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq.

The bracelets represent support to the troops, he said, and are "a consistent reminder when you look at it on your wrist to remember where you are, where you live and who supports the freedom."

"When Joe approached me about doing the bracelets," M.O.M.S' Johnston noted, "he said he believes in M.O.M.S., and that working as a team would be much more powerful than working separately to show our support for the troops nationally."

She said Spano's company has produced 480,000 bracelets. Spano explained that M.O.M.S. gets 10 percent of all proceeds and he also contributes funds personally to support the troops. "This has become a personal passion for him," she noted.

M.O.M.S. has sent hundreds of "care packs" to servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each 1-gallon plastic bag is loaded with such things as lip balm, phone cards, disposable cameras, beef jerky, anti-bacterial soap, dental floss, music CDs, playing cards and a host of other items.

Article By Rudi Williams / American Forces Press Service