Lance Sijan Plane Dedication

Jeff's Legion Rider group participated in the Sijan Plane dedication today. Lance Sijan was a great American hero to was killed in captivity in Vietnam.  He was honored today with the dedication of an F-14 fighter plane that was placed near the airport in his honor.

The family was escorted from Humboldt Park to the airport by a group of 103 riders.

There were dignitaries who spoke at the event and we took the opportunity to take photos of them and thank them for all they do for us.

It was a wonderful event and I am glad I had the opportunity to attend.

Memorial Day Flag Planting

It's my husband, Jeff's tradition to go to the Veteran's cemetery and plant the flags on the graves in time for Memorial Day. So today was the day for his volunteer group (the GE employees veteran network) to do the task. In past years Jeff has taken our granddaughter, Chloe with him. As a toddler, she rode along in her wagon and handed her grandpa the flags. This year was very different.

Chloe is a fast study.  She watched her grandpa put his heel up against the headstone, then make the hole for the flag at the end of his toes using the length of his foot as a measure to make all the flags in the row look uniform.  Chloe wanted to do this task for him.  So she stuck her toes up against the headstone to measure and put the flag at the length of her foot. Grandpa had a difficult time explaining to her that his foot was a little bit longer than hers thus lacking the uniformity as intended.  Oh well.

Chloe's little sister, Avery had to help too. She sat in the wagon and handed Chloe the flags. So it was a very cooperative operation and we got all the flags planted in our rows in no time.

VA Hospital Visit with the Legion Riders

Today is our annual visit to the VA Hospital (the Clement Zablocki Medical Center to be exact). My church's quilt group, Sweet Sundays made a bunch of lap quilts for me to take along. Since we visit the spinal cord unit, most who are there are wheelchair bound so it is a nice useful gift for these veterans.  Every year I make little treat bags in Christmas colors. I fill them with Hershey's Hugs and Kisses. That way, if these patients really aren't supposed to have sweets, this tiny little amount shouldn't really hurt. It's not much but they do look pretty.

This year was a special treat. We had some enlisted men with us who brought books and cans of hard candy. Our coordinator, Pat Moore also brought some t-shirts along that he got as donations from local businesses. We even had Santa Claus join us while we prepped our carts full of goodies to hand out. 

The staff at the hospital are always thrilled when we visit.  Some of their patients are far from home so they don't get many visitors.  So we are glad to help. We broke up into groups and went from room to room wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and thanked them for their service. Many wanted to chat. We stayed as long as we could and listened to their stories.  

These patients have spinal cord injuries, some severe, most unable to ever walk again. Funny thing, they never want to talk about why they are there. No conversations about surgeries, medical procedures or pain and suffering.  They only want to talk about where they are from, what branch of the service they were in and their military experiences.  I find that amazing. And inspiring. 

American Legion Post 434 Christmas Party

Today the post held the Children's Christmas Party. It was a breakfast event, and the girls really dug into some scrambled eggs.  We enjoyed our bloody marys at the bar while we waited for the event to start. We weren't sure what to expect, not sure how the girls were going to react to Santa Claus. I tried to prepare Chloe by talking about how Santa was going to hand her a present and she could tell him what she wanted for Christmas if she wanted to.  She seemed OK with it, but we were still not sure what would happen when he actually got there.

Luckily, the kids were called up to get a stocking full of candy one table at a time, and we were going to be second last.  Chloe studied each kid sitting on Santa's lap and watched while they walked away with a stocking loaded with goodies. Avery didn't really care but we were still not sure how she would react.  After getting the stockings, and sitting on Santa's lap for a photo op, the kids were instructed to come sit on the floor around Santa and he would had out gifts. Chloe went right up to get on his lap again. Wow! What a surprise, she was really into it.  Avery not so much.  Each child's name was called to come up and get a gift. Chloe was thrilled.  She was even thrilled for her sister to get one. They immediately opened them up with tons of excitement in the air.  The girls were both happy to be here and happy with their gifts.

After everyone got their gifts the kids all ran around a bit, which was great since they needed to wear off all that sugar from the candy in the stockings. We said goodbye to Santa as he left and not long after that we headed home.  It was a wonderful event and we will certainly be back again next year.

Air Show 2013

Avery

We've taken Chloe to the air show every year since she was born. So this year was no different except for the addition of her baby sister, Avery who got to attend her first air show.  Grandpa gets free VIP family tickets to the GE Veterans' Network tent right on the lake.  They provide food and drink for everybody as well as nice tables and chairs, benches and sun umbrellas.  It's a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon with the girls.



Chloe

Chloe loves the planes so it's always fun to watch her reaction to the aircraft.  Avery is still too little to understand so for her, it's a sunny afternoon of playing with grandma, grandpa and mom. 

This year Chloe discovered the beach.

Avery and Grandma

Unfortunately, it means climbing over very large and somewhat treacherous rocks to get to it.  Once there, she was delighted with the waves coming in and the sand.  She made sand piles, rock piles, giggled and screeched every time the waves lapped up on little legs and feet. Because of the difficult climb to get to the beach, I did not take the camera. I sure wish I could have. 

As part of the GE Veterans' Network, Jeff does volunteer work to benefit veterans' groups.  He and his co-workers volunteer at Miller Park by working the concession stand during Brewers games and the proceeds go to the Fisher House, a sort of Ronald McDonald House for veterans.

Today the group brought some veteran guests to the GE VIP tent to see the air show. They were all current patients from the VA Hospital. Jeff stopped to chat with them and enjoyed spending time with them. In fact the VA Hospital staff that were along remembered our Legion group visit over the Christmas holiday. Jeff has a way with people so the veteran guests were very comfortable chatting with him and he enjoys their company. 

Grandpa and Chloe


We love this little family tradition and hopefully as long as there is an air show we will continue to attend with the girls. 


Guests from the VA Hospital

Air Show 2013

Ride to King Veterans Home

Today we went with the Legion Riders on a ride to King, Wisconsin.  I had no idea where King was so I googled it and found it to be west of Appleton, around 130 miles from our house.  We met the ALRA group at the Harley plant parking lot at 8:30 and left there at 8:45.  It was almost a 2 hour ride to King so we did stop halfway to get gas.  It was a nice break from the ride and the weather was perfect.

We got there and parked the bikes.  We were on our own until 1:00 when the parade started.  So we purchased their famous chicken dinners and enjoyed some of the best chicken ever.  The side dishes weren't great so I skipped them.  We sat with our group and ate while people watching.  Since it was Fathers' Day we noticed lots of family members with the residents.  There were people in wheelchairs everywhere. 

The campus is beautiful.  It is located on Rainbow Lake and is like a mini-village.  There were plenty of small housing units all located on the lake.  The Wisconsin Veterans Museum is also located on the lake, right on the grounds so we walked through it. There were two large buildings that housed the residents and a very pretty little park with a fountain and a bandstand in the middle of the grounds.  This is a gorgeous place. We watched a man carve eagles with a chain saw.  That was pretty amazing.
We really enjoyed visiting the residents and the ALRA members from the other chapters.  There were Legion Riders from all over the state here.  This was my first visit, and others who have been there in years' past, who stated that this was the largest turnout of motorcycles ever.

The parade lasted a whole 20 minutes.  We rode through the compound, which was probably equivalent to 4 or 5 blocks.  There were motorcycles, a few antique cars, a convertible with dignitaries, a Gold Star mom vehicle, and a firetruck.  There was also a high school band who were very good.

We took the back roads home and didn't pull into the driveway until 5:45.  It was a long day but a rewarding one. I am so glad I went along. 

Armed Forces Day Ride and Event

We met the Legion Riders in the parking lot of Brookfield Square so we could all ride over to Hal's Harley-Davidson together.  We were leading the parade today so it was best to get there as a group.  The bad part about that is we have to be there way before the start of the parade so we are staged in the correct order.  The good part is Hal's HOG chapter is hosting a free pancake breakfast so at least there's a social event to fill the time while we wait and remove some of the boredom. 

One thing about waiting for a parade to begin is that we always meet really cool people.  Today was no exception. We met a serviceman who was just transferred to the Milwaukee area.  We hope our converstaion made him feel welcome here.  We also met a real live general.  He was going to speak at the ceremony today.  We had a nice chat and discovered that he will be leading the parade with us today.  This day is getting better already. There was also a cameraman from FoxNews who was going along with us today. He filmed the entire event.

The ride started at Hal's Harley-Davidson on Moorland Road and ended at the Harley-Davidson Museum.  It was quite a long way to go.  The route was controlled by local police and the HOG chapter road guards so we never had to stop at the intersections.  I love those kind of rides. 

When we got to the museum we parked and headed to the bar for a morning Bloody Mary then sat and enjoyed hanging out and listened to the Legion band play on this beautiful day.

The speakers at this event were all military people (of course) and Jeff is never shy about talking with any or all of them so off he went to say hi to the color guard, the Navy people, and the speakers for today's event. As for me, I loved the tank display. They even let me climb in and operate it. I could move the turret from left to right and back again while pretending to aim and shoot those big guns. It was quite and incredible point of view and not easy to climb in and out of. But it sure was cool.

The ceremony ended with the solemn laying of the wreath on the water which was a proper way to conclude the event.