Report posted for: Lynn Loyd

The day started off with a thunder storm. But as we got closer to the staging point the weather seemed to clear up and the rain stopped.
We pulled up to the family’s house making a little noise as the party was going strong.It was a party for Matthew who just graduated high school
and was on his way to Fort Benning Georgia. His brother Ben is leaving for Iraq at the end of the month.

In the crowd were soldiers and many families of soldiers Some of which we had met before on a welcome home or sendoff so we had many people to
thank. We even had the mother of a wounded soldier and a Vietnam Vet.

Ron (the dad ) was all smiles you could tell by looking at him that he was a very proud dad. He couldn’t stop thanking us, but his smile was all we
needed. I didn’t see a tear in the crowd of family and friends that were there just alot of proud faces and alot of smiles.

Most of the family were from Wisconsin and told me “they had never heard of us until today” and that now “they would never forget us”.

We had the soldiers sign our banner and presented them with beads and a coin, took our group photos and then we were off to the next mission.

Good luck in boot camp Matt and Ben all I can say is stay safe and we have your back and we will see you when you come home.