Character Shows True at Military Appreciation Days
By Lenore McKenzie Morris
When the flag bearer jumped from the jet, she stopped talking and stepped aside. It was no ordinary flag descending from the skies over the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, but she was no ordinary speaker.
Colleen Shine was just one of the military family members who showed up for the first-ever Military Appreciation Days on the last weekend in May, but she certainly wasn't the only one. In fact, almost everyone who attended the Awards and Memorial Ceremony was a member of a military family. With few exceptions, the rest were veterans or active duty members.
Shine, the former public relations director of the National League of POW/MIA Families, stood on familiar ground as she gave her speech.
"It was only a few hundred yards from here that I saw my dad for the last time," she said. "My mom gave him the thumbs up and my brothers and I waved as his A7 flew overhead into the wild blue yonder. It was October of 1972 and he was on his way to Southeast Asia for his second tour of duty in Vietnam.
"Just two years after escorting his brother's body home for burial, my father was listed as missing in action. For the next 24 years my family lived with the burden of uncertainty."
But Shine had to wait to finish her speech. She came near the end of a long program, punctuated by awards for those who ran the fastest during the festival games; speeches by those who were honored with streets named for them on the redeveloped base; and the recognition of a Korean War Memorial. Her time coincided with the parachute jump, and the massive tent shading hundreds of audience members emptied quickly as all eyes turned to the sky.
Three jumpers trailed colored smoke and the fourth descended with an American flag so big the stars were recognizable shapes as it gently fell from the sky. Jamie Lynn, a retired Vietnam veteran, was the first to reach the ground. Lynn, his wife Sandy and their friends Bill and Brenda Gatter and Robert Scott, are members of the Special Forces Association's Parachute Team. Their entrance to the awards ceremony was greeted with cheers and applause and as they descended one by one, many in the audience sought autographs. It was a ceremony that started with a flag raising, but it did not end with the retiring of the massive 33-by-65-foot flag carried by the parachute jumper.
Often, it seems there is not enough time for the stories of those who have sacrificed for our country, and those whose families paid the ultimate price for our freedom. At a standard event involving the flag, it would be routine to see people leaving after such an exceptional event as the flag bearing parachute jump. But not here. As so many of those who attended the awards ceremony share similar experiences with those who have sacrificed for their country, the audience returned to their seats under the tent, to listen as the speaker returned to the podium to continue her speech - two hours after the event had started, on a hot day in South Carolina.
Colleen Shine's 24 years of uncertainty came to an end when she traveled to Vietnam and brought her father home. Hers was a story that many would find difficult from which to walk away. Her speech was followed by a solemn end to the Missing Man Table ceremony. Members of Rolling Thunder stepped forward to retrieve hats from each branch of the military from a place at a fully set table, where empty chairs marked the places for those soldiers and sailors who never returned home.
The Missing Man Table was presented by Daniel Habermann, a South Carolina student who has undertaken to travel the state presenting the table ceremony as part of a class project.
The winners of the games during the first annual Military Appreciation Days event were: Senior Master Sergeant E-8 Phillip French of Robbins Air Force Base in Georgia, for the low score championship of golf; Michael Schnur, retired U.S. Marine Corps of 29 Palms, Calif., for the low net championship; Julie Dural of Myrtle Beach for the women's 5K run; Kevin Donnelly from Camp Lejeune, N.C. for the men's 5K; Tri Care Insurance Company for the Combat Cuisine cook-off; and the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort for the Men's Basketball Tournament.
The City of Myrtle Beach will host Military Appreciation Days next year on Memorial Day weekend.
There are no comments posted. Add yours below.