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Return to First Friday Briefing Community Comes Out Story by Spc. Heather
McLemore
Residents
of the To
express their appreciations citizens donated bottled water, sweets and
other snacks to give to Soldiers of the 48th Brigade Combat Team who
lived and often worked at Epworth by the Sea Retreat during the summit. More
than 7,000 bottles of water and several thousand snack items were
gathered and then handed out before the summit ever began on June 6. “Everyone
really made an effort to give to the Soldiers, and went out of their way
to show how much they appreciated the National Guard was doing for
them,” Bennett said. “That was especially true after we made the
announcement on local radio about what we needed. “Again,
the response was phenomenal.” Besides
water and food, there were also special contributions to the 48th by
children from several area churches and youth groups, she continued. The
youngsters spent more than a week, Bennett said, drawing and writing
“thank you” notes to the Guardsmen, which went onto every bottle of
water, every candy bar and every snack before it was given out. Everyday
since the Guard has taken position, she and several youth volunteers
delivered the water and snacks to locations around “The
kids really enjoyed meeting the Guardsmen and being able to hand them a
bottle of water and just saying ‘thank you” for keeping them
safe,” she added. And
the children weren’t the only ones who felt that way, said Brian
Floyd, a youth volunteer with The Gathering Place, a Christian youth
ministry on “Every
time I saw a Soldier standing guard, walking a checkpoint or patrolling
a street, I knew that person was watching out for me, my home and my
community,” said Floyd. “When I heard the request for volunteers on
the radio I knew I wanted to do anything I could to help support those
Soldiers,” he said. As
much as residents appreciated what the Soldiers did for them, the
Guardsmen were just as grateful to the citizens for going out of their
way to make sure they’re needs were taken care of. It made all the
long hours, the heat and humidity more bearable every time he saw a
purple “thank you” on a bottle of water, or every time I received
something from a child’s hands, said Sgt. Willie Milledge, a
communications specialist with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion,
121st Infantry. “Every
smile, every ‘God bless you’ gave me the encouragement and incentive
I needed to drive on and continue my mission,” Milledge said. “It
really gave me the motivation to stand tall and be proud to be a
Soldier.” Staff
Sgt. Steven Dowling, a tracked vehicle inspector with Company B, 148th
Forward Support Battalion, said he had several hundred people each day
passed by his guard post at a radar station near “I
received nothing but smiles, hugs and gratitude from everyone,
everyday,” Dowling said, a track vehicle inspector with Hinesville’s
Company B 148th Infantry Regiment. Dowling was posted right in front of
the beach on Several
hundred people came by everyday, said Dowling, Some, he said, wanted to
take his picture, while others would just call out “appreciate all you
do” or ask if he or the other Soldiers needed anything in
particular.” What
really put the “icing on the cake’ for he and other members of the
Georgia Guard was what happened during the final day of the summit,
Milledge recalled. A
large group of people protesting everything from the war in Iraq to
environmental issues, he said, had made its way onto John Torras
Causeway, he said. Their interaction with a Mobile Field Force (MFF)
made up of Guardsmen and civil law enforcement was watched by just large
a crowd of area residents. “I
was amazed because every time the MFF would march forward and tell the
protestors to ‘move back’ the locals would cheer and whistle,”
said Milledge. “And every time a protestor was apprehended, they
applauded.” Throughout
the G8 Summit Glynn County residents and others had to deal with an
awful lot of interruption of their regular routine, Dowling said.
Instead of complaining about it, they dealt with it, got through it and
let the Soldiers and Airmen of the Georgia National Guard know that they
were welcome and appreciated. That,
he said, is a memory that will stay with him forever. |
