Team,
I hope that this note finds you all well and happy after your Thanksgiving holidays. We had quite a week, and as a result were reminded that we have a lot to be grateful for. We got an opportunity to hear from the men and women forward, an opportunity to spend time with our Marine family and were able to get some socks out to some units on the pointed end of the spear. As a result, we’ve got a lot of great things to report.
As I mentioned last week, Wednesday would have been our son’s 32nd birthday. So you can figure it’s not the easiest time for us, but one of the things we’ve found is that the universe doesn’t allow us to spend too much time thinking about it if we remain open and willing to follow the path that it puts us on.
This year was no different.
On Monday, I got a note from a Marine Sergeant Major who was responding to a request to see if we could help them. He reminded me of our past acquaintance back in 2012 and 2014 when we shipped socks to him when he was a First Sergeant with another unit. I was happy that he remembered us. Back then we were shipping black cotton crew socks, I was happy to tell him that the quality of the socks had improved.
On Tuesday, we were honored to be invited to a “Relief and Appointment” ceremony for the outgoing and incoming Sergeant Majors for our son’s battalion 1/5. It was a small affair, but we had the opportunity to see many of the people we have met at the Camp who have meant so much to us over the years.
We had an opportunity to work with the Sergeant Major on a couple of projects in between all the training and deployment preparation that he was responsible for in getting his battalion ready to go out on their mission. Most notably was the 1/5 Afghanistan 10-year reunion. He always went out of his way to meet our requests, no matter how seemingly unreasonable. We always felt like we were a thorn in his side. During the ceremony he put that impression to rest.
The ceremony itself is pretty simple, orders for both Sergeant Majors are read, there is the passing of the sword and then thank-you’ s. Normally they go to their Commands, the Non-Commissioned Officers they worked with, Marines from the past who had mentored them and their families.
When the Sergeant Major began his thank you’ s, it went to Command, and then he thanked us. He talked about the reunion and our never-ending requests that we thought were irritating him. There were a few of them. How many Marines on the parade deck for the ceremony? Could we get the 1st Marine Division band? What kind of support could we get for the climb up 1st Sergeants hill? But what he shared with the audience was that he was amazed at the level of detail that we went thought to make sure that the returning Marines were made to feel comfortable and had a great reunion. He told the crowd that having the 300 Veterans and Family Members back for those 3 days was one of the high points of this time with 1/5. I was grateful that I was wearing sunglasses because otherwise the tears coming out of my eyes would have been obvious.
We wish our friend fair winds and following seas to his next assignment on the drill field at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot where he will spend the next two years making Marines.
On Wednesday we went to see our son.
As Carla arranges the flowers by his headstone, I think of some of the past birthdays we’d spent together. Being born on the 25th, on occasion it would fall on Thanksgiving. Once when he was little, we went out to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner, and he said to Carla “Are all these people here for my birthday?” A waiter overheard him and the next thing he knew there was a little piece of cake and a candle and the entire restaurant began singing “Happy Birthday to You”.
I can still remember his smile.
On Friday we ship. We push out 3,600 pairs of socks to special operations units in Syria, Iraq, and Africa. Carla and I go down to our storage unit and begin the process of labeling boxes. I load them into the truck and take them to the Post Office. The day after Thanksgiving, there is no one on the dock. I load the boxes into the carriers and go home. As I am ready to leave, a Postal Driver backs her truck up next to mine, gets out and looks at all the boxes and asks, “Who are you shipping these too.” While she cannot see it under my mask, I smile.
“My family.”
We’ll be shipping again on Monday. If you’d like to help with postage, please take a moment to go to http://socks4heroes.com and make a donation. We could also use your help in getting the word out. Please forward this note to anyone you know who supports the military.
Thanks for joining us in our position in this fight!
Jim Hogan
In memory of our son, LCPL Donald Hogan.
Posthumously awarded the Navy Cross
KIA 8/26/2009 Nawa, Afghanistan
We honor his memory by caring for Americans wherever they serve in harm’s way.