"Dear Andy"

Dear Andy, 

I wanted to write you a letter and tell you about what I saw and experienced recently when the traveling came to Fairlawn.  

Before that though, I wonder how you are doing?  The last time I talked to you I asked what the temperature was in Afghanistan that day and you replied, “A billion.”  I can’t imagine how it feels to try to work in the heat and the sand. Are you sunburned?  I wish you were home.  But I am very proud of you and the job you are doing. A billion. That’s hot.

I am really good! When you deployed the last time to Iraq, the first time I went to the post office to send the boxes of “things from home” for you, I had a hard time.  I couldn’t talk to the postal clerk, because I wasn’t able to open my mouth without crying.  I know, I know, I’m a sap.  You will be glad to know that this time I’m doing better!  No crying in public!  I think of you every day and wonder what you are doing today. 

So, anyway, I noticed over the last month or so that the Memorial Wall was coming to Fairlawn. There was a sign in front of the across from my office.  I couldn’t really imagine how they would do that. I saw the actual Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. and it was so amazing and overwhelming that I couldn’t imagine how they could do it justice with a traveling version. 

I started looking online for some sort of an agenda and I found out that the wall was being transported and escorted on Tuesday morning, on August 16.  I took an hour’s personal time plus my lunch, brought my camera and walked across the street to take some pictures when they arrived. 

The truck and escorts were supposed to arrive about 11:15 a.m., but I thought I would get over there a little after 10:30 a.m. so I could find a place out of the way to take pictures.  I tried to take pictures with you in mind and that you would find interesting. The plan was that the escorts would meet the transport truck at Liberty Harley Davidson in Akron at 11 a.m. and then come to Fairlawn.  I barely made it across the street at 10:30 a.m. when the motorcycles started coming… 

American Legion Riders, Rolling Thunder, Leathernecks, Harley Davidson motorcycle riders, Vietnam vets on motorcycles. . . Harley Owner’s Group . . .all escorting this huge, beautifully painted semi-truck – I had no idea.  It was a truck and trailer that is all about the wall… provided by Dignity Memorial Funeral Homes – the truck alone without the motorcycles was amazing.  I actually stepped into the street to take some of the pictures of the motorcycles coming toward me with the truck in the middle of them.  I still get goose bumps thinking about it.  

The motorcycles pulled in to the funeral home parking lot and parked – so many – and they were beautiful.  Clean, shiny, beautiful motorcycles.  And the riders.  Oh my gosh, Andy… In a uniform of sorts… leather, jeans, vests… with these amazing badges, people’s names, protest patches… POW/MIA patches… some were clean cut, some were absolutely grizzled looking with long hair and beards.  They all seemed to be cohesive with a background that held them together. A brotherhood of sorts.  At the end of this letter, I will put the YouTube link so you can see the pictures.  My words can’t explain it. 

The riders didn’t just “arrive” and park.  They greeted each other like brothers… walked and talked… shook hands or a quick man hug… and then the Dignity Memorial truck driver opened the back of the truck trailer and they lined up to help.  All volunteering their strength and their time to help. It took several men at a time to take a single section of the wall and move it to where they were directed.  I felt like I was just a ghost moving among them taking pictures – no one seemed to notice and, if they did they, didn’t mind.  I took almost a thousand pictures that day.  As I got more comfortable, I started talking to people a little at a time.  Not too much that day, just asking permission to take a picture here and there.   

SIDE NOTE:  There was this one man.  He was wearing his leather vest without a shirt under it.  He was very strong looking and suntanned with long hair and a great face.  I kept being drawn to look at him and I took a lot of pictures.  I processed the pictures that night and made the attached video and posted it.   The next day two of the women from downstairs saw me and said…. “Oh my God… who is that man?  He looks like a movie star!  Did he look that good in person? (Yes) Oh my gosh… I wonder if he will be there tomorrow??”  He shows up (the first time) about minute 1:29 in my video… just in case you’re wondering…

I stayed around and watched for a while and then I went back to work.  I looked out of my office window from time to time, but I couldn’t see much past the trees to see the progress.  After work I went back over with my camera.  I couldn’t believe the Wall itself was erected already at this point.  I thought it would take days.  I took some pictures, and there were a few people wandering around.  I didn’t stay long, and as I was walking back to my car, a man pulled up in his car, parked and got out. 

 He said, “Hello ma’am, how are you today?” 

 I told him I was good and asked him if he was coming to see the Wall. 

“Yes, ma’am.”  He was dressed in an Army T-shirt with a short-sleeved dress shirt over it.  He walked to the back of his car and opened the trunk and apologized to me as he took off his over-shirt.  He pulled out a vest… and I started to look at the patches on the vest.  “Infantry United States Army”, “American Heroes”, POW patches, many, many patches on his vest… and as my eyes traveled around his vest reading, he turned around to get a hat out of his trunk.  When I saw the hat, I realized at that minute… this is a Buffalo Soldier.  It was just so cool!  He put on his hat and I asked him if I could take his picture.  He said yes and I took snapshots front and back.  Then he walked off and I went to my car. I realized I didn’t even ask him his name. 

He is the last man on the video I am attaching here.  The day was just completely amazing. It was a good day.  In an odd way, I felt connected to you because of the military feel of the day.   

I will write more later, my lunch hour is over.  I want to tell you more about this day and about the week.  I completely skipped over the part today where there was a Purple Heart Ceremony for the Marine from Richfield that was killed in Afghanistan last year.  His name is GySgt .  I think I told you about him last year.  His father is a Richfield police officer.  

I want you to know that I think about you all of the time, and I miss you.  Please be safe and call or write when you can.  Do you need anything that I can send you?  I’m more emotionally prepared this time to send you boxes!  Crystal Light?  Beef jerky? Snacks? Magazines? Pictures of me? (ha-ha)  You name it – and I will see that you get it.

I love you, my son.

Mom

p.s.  Here is the link to the YouTube video from this day.  I have a video for each day of the Wall that I’m going to write to you about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKrFi-VOIlE  (Opening ceremony, first day of the Wall)

Contact me at ProudAirForceMom1@yahoo.com