Recap from August 11th
Summer time is here and what comes to mind? Vacation time, swimming and BBQs – well we can not provide any of the first 2, but a BBQ sounded like something within reach… once the idea caught on the planning stage took over… volunteers were busy filling lists with their contributions and within 3 days we had what we needed… wow ! Sandra and Janine from
Stuttgart took care of the meat and plates/silverware etc. Janine as usual made the theme cake and a salad…
Valerie from France took care of the needed basics plus some French pastries and bread. Karolina and David + a volunteer from work were mostly responsible for the organizational part – Air Force style: we had tables, benches a tent, a grill and beverages – setting it all up went without a hitch thanks to them… the weather played its part – we had sunshine and blue skies… it looked and smelled perfect…
From here on the narrating part will have to switch to a more general view, just highlighting a few, because we want to uphold the common security regulations which have been implemented for a good reason.
One of our guests was a remarkable young man and a very lucky one indeed… he had just survived an OED attack a couple of days ago by being thrown 20 feet from the vehicle during the explosion – he stuttered a little due to the hard hit on impact, but we assured him that he looked alright and we didn’t really have a problem following his narrations – his worries laid mainly back with his unit, he even tried to find out what happened to the rest who were riding in the vehicle with him (as their Squad leader) – but after calling downrange he was told not to worry and to get better… within his heart he knew what that meant, but he still had some hope… he was going to catch a flight back home in a few and we tried to make his stay a comfortable as possible… its incredible how thankful he was for his get well card and all the food, its been another humbling experience…
Oh, I should mention one more guest – he was really fascinating… I took my laptop to give all those who wanted to take a chance to check and send mails that day, since it has mobile access…. Well while everybody took turns there was no need to attend to it…. Till this soldier came up having problem with the German keyboard… alright, you don’t run into it by using regular letters, because they are plainly on the keyboard – but this soldier had a very, very special password with lots of special characters… I mean the kind you need to unlock a rocket sequence… I am not sure about his MOS, but its somewhat unusual to encrypt your online email account like that…
… the day was closing, time just flew by… we needed to start clearing the place. All meat and foods were placed on platters and plates, cakes and pastries were gathered and we headed over to the in processing center – a good place to leave eatables, most flights come in at night when almost everything is closed around Landstuhl… Valerie just handed me a Rhubarb cake to pack when a late guest arrived (his schedule didn’t allow him to show up earlier) – Liaisons work almost around the clock… it was great meeting up again, we exchanged a cheery hello and that’s when he spotted the cake I was still holding… “is that rhubarb cake? I didn’t have any in over 6 months” It was clear that the cake found a new owner – he couldn’t believe he could keep it all… ha ha.
0nce we dropped the food off the at the in processing center, we were already on the way out when some of the personnel came running out wanting to thank us (oh dear, I almost felt embarrassed) – they were all in uniform and wanted to take a photo with us.. lol.. I tried to hide, but they didn’t let me… one of the German security guards jumped in and told us we couldn’t take photos with any of the security measures showing, but he was nice enough to show us a safe spot.. after the “photo shoot” we went back to talk to him – turns out he belonged to a Veterans organization and even plays tabs when called upon – quite impressive.. he was very talkative and entertaining… and he even apologized for interrupting earlier and he explained why (security measures)… well it was a long day and time to pack up and go home…
many, many thanks to all volunteers who worked hard to turn this day into a success - it couldn’t have been done without you and some extra special thanks goes to:
Diane and Steve Newton - http://www.silverstarfamilies.org/
Janie Orman - http://www.blanketminitstry.com
for in part sponsoring this event
