Chambers sending big 'thanks' to Guard

Antelope Valley Press ^ | September 9, 2003 | DENNIS ANDERSON

[BenLurkin]

PALMDALE - The guy who was blinking back tears was a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, a paratrooper from Desert Storm, and joining him was another Army veteran married to a soldier serving in Kuwait and Iraq. Pretty soon, they were both misty. Offices of the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce might have seemed an unusual locale for such public display of emotion, but it resulted from the joy attached to a big "Thank You" shipment going to local troops overseas engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Charles Brown, the Desert Storm vet, got something in his eye during an attempt to convey the daily hardships faced by his friends, deployed with the National Guard in Iraq and Kuwait. "I miss them," Brown said. "I wish I was there."

Joining him was Erin Rice, an Army veteran who is wife of Sgt. 1st Class Henry Rice. Henry Rice couldn't be at Monday's gathering because he is keeping heavy-duty Army trucks running between Iraq and Kuwait for the 1498th Transportation Co. of the California National Guard.

Dozens of soldiers from the Antelope Valley serve with the unit, and Erin Rice is coordinator of the family support group that helps spouses and kin make do.

Among the items to be shipped are pre-paid phone cards. "At $2 a minute, I get a once-a-week telephone call from Henry. That's a $400 a month telephone bill, and when we talk, we talk personal, and not a lot of military," Rice said.

Rice joined with Brown, 1st Sgt. Daniel Schwartz and Sgt. Mike Hernandez of the 756th Transportation Co. of Lancaster. They arrived to join ceremonies for a joint "Support the Troops" project of the Palmdale and Antelope Valley (Lancaster-Rosamond) chambers of commerce.

From the efforts of a number of chamber donors from both groups, and the profits of a recent joint fund-raiser, the two chambers raised more than $3,000 in goods to ship to the California soldier-truckers of the National Guard.

All four Wal-Mart stores in the Valley kicked in a combined total of $1,000. Other major donations flowed from local companies such as American Medical Response, Senior Systems Technology, M&M Air Conditioning, Southern California Housing Development Corp.

Scott White, chairman, and Isaac Barcelona, the president-CEO who heads up the Palmdale chamber, approached CEO Steve Malicott and Phil Kincaid, chairman of the AV Chambers, and they pooled proceeds from a luncheon.

Individual donors included Barcelona, Tonette Capello, Miguel and Elizabeth Gonzalez.

Together, the individuals and groups moved quickly on an ad hoc basis to respond to a "wants and needs" standing list from the Guard company. Going into the box, with most of the goods purchased for cost at Wal-Mart, were dozens of cases of beef jerky, donated "cold packs" from AMR, music CDs and sets of hand-held individual radios used by the truckers for convoy communications.

Earlier this year, people donated calling cards and DVD movies that were turned in at Assemblywoman Sharon Runner's office.

Malicott said the project was one that was easy to respond to. Before retiring, Malicott, a chief master sergeant, was the senior enlisted adviser at Edwards AFB.

"Our Antelope Valley chambers, I think, have a good record of supporting our troops at home and overseas," he said. And that was where the misty eyes came in.

"I'm dumbstruck," Erin Rice said. "Sometimes you feel like people have forgotten, that they think the war is over."

The wife of Sgt. 1st Class Rice said all wives, children, kin, are encountering the harshness of critics of the war in Iraq, and doing their best to cope with their spouses' morale issues. They battle a depressing sense that people are forgetting the troops' plight.

Larry Lampkin, general manager of a Wal-Mart store, has a nephew serving in Baghdad. He assured Erin Rice that was not the case. "The impression that people are forgetting is not quite true," he said. "The people who do care are the quieter sort of people. They are the people who believe in deeds, not words."

Rice cannot bring herself to watch television news. Instead, she waits for news from her husband via e-mail or the treasured telephone calls. Brown said the troops have it hard, and that the family members have it hard.

"It's accurate to say it's a 'hell hole' out there, a real 'no man's land,' " Brown said. "It's a lot different from the desert here. It's a lot of nothing. If there's an occasional palm tree, you can see the troops moving with the shade as the sun moves, and the sand gets into everything."

Scott White, chief of the Valley's branch of AMR, served in Desert Storm as a Navy corpsman with the Marines. He agreed with Brown's take and said that was why the chamber wanted to send a big "Thank You" to the AV troops.

The troops in the unit Antelope Valley soldiers are serving with run missions into Iraq that often run a week to 10 days. Twice they have fought off ambushes involving remote control explosives, and three soldiers have been wounded.

Brown said for families of Guard and Reserve troops, the toll of separation is one they are unused to because such duty used to involve a few weeks commitment per year. Now, those duties are much more like the regular military services. No time is set for return of the Guard troops.

"We want them to stay safe, and we want them all to come home, but we do not know when that will be," Staff Sgt. Brown said.

Former medical Corpsman White, now the Palmdale chamber chairman, said this was a different war than the lightning conflict he served a dozen years ago.

[BenLurkin]

"DONATION - Two Valley chambers of commerce are shipping goods to Antelope Valley troops serving in Iraq. In front, from left, are Sgt. Michael Hernandez; Erin Rice, family support coordinator for the National Guard 756th Transportation Co.; and Tonette Capello, Palmdale chamber director. In back, from left, are Staff Sgt. Charles Brown; 1st Sgt. Daniel Schwartz; Steve Taylor; Miguel Gonzales; Scott White; Larry Lampkin, director representing Wal-Mart; Isaac Barcelona, Palmdale chamber CEO; and Eva Eveland, representing American Medical Response. RON SIDDLE/Valley Press

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Well done!