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Tea held to honor our veterans

The Times-Picayune
Sunday, July 20, 2008
By Carol Wolfram
St. Tammany bureau

Eighty veterans from throughout the north and south shore spent last Sunday afternoon enjoying tea, finger sandwiches, pastel petits fours and stories of war.

"It's family," said Dan Cantor of New Orleans, a Marine and volunteer with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. More than 40 of the 80 veterans attending the Sunday social served in World War II.

The event, a veterans appreciation tea hosted by the Victorian Tea Room in Olde Towne Slidell, was organized by the Veterans Celebrate Freedom organization, founded as a project of Leadership Northshore class of 2008 members Kevin Savoie, Dionne Graham, Troy Ingram, Chuck Sabadie, Will Rachal and Samuel Chatman.

"I'm taken back by the event, and I certainly hope to make more," Cantor added.

The occasion was marked with proclamations from U.S. Senator David Vitter and Parish President Kevin Davis.

Davis proclaimed July 13 "WWII Veterans Day" in an effort to educate the public "of all that our military has done and continues to do for the freedoms we all experience."

Vitter's proclamation added that "it is through their bravery and devotion that our nation is the strong and resilient America we know today, and for that we will always be indebted to our service men and women."

Sabadie stressed that the event would not have been possible without the support of the Guardians of Slidell History organization. Veterans attending a pre-Katrina GOSH exhibit dedicated to their service to the country had signed a registry, which GOSH President Billie Pittman used as a master list for invitations to the appreciation tea. She then called everyone that received an invitation to confirm attendance and seating schedule. "It took some time, but I was glad to help. I can talk on the phone," said Pittman, who also volunteered to assist at the tea, welcoming and helping to seat the veterans and their guests.

The next occasion being organized by the Veterans Celebrate Freedom will be a Hawaiian-themed hangar dance with a live swing band performance, being held Oct. 9 or 16 -- the date is not yet finalized -- from 1 to 4 p.m.at the Slidell Airport.

The appreciation tea and the upcoming hangar dance are preludes to the Veterans Celebrate Freedom's major event of the year, a Veterans Day Parade that will be held Nov. 9 in Slidell. The parade will feature three high school marching bands, ROTC marching units, the Molly Marines, veterans riding in prestige cars and more.

"We need to remember and honor our veterans as the national treasures they are," Sabadie said.

Sabadie invited all veterans wanting to participate in the parade and any organization, civic or business, wanting to support the effort, to contact him at (504) 251-8361 or by-email at chuck@veteranscelebratefreedom.org.

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq