Every year here in the City of Dearborn, Michigan the selected Veteran of the Year is honored at the City’s official Veterans Day ceremony. This year’s selection was a Navy Veteran who was in from 1985 to 1992 and served aboard the USS Carl Vinson. Once Richard was selected I immediately started planning a special recognition for him that only a Marine would do for a sailor. A few years ago I purchased a Marines t-shirt for his son Jason to wear. He actually wore it for school pictures months later. Richard gave me a 5 x 7 of the photo. Unfortunately I purchase the t-shirt at a local Army-Navy store.
Richard, whose nickname is “Bobber” for obvious reason, also has two daughters. One a sophomore at Michigan State and the other a junior in high school. There is a t-shirt in the Sgt Grit catalog that says, “Chicks Dig Marines” so I ordered two of them. Once the t-shirts arrived I gave them to Richard’s wife so the girls could wear them to the ceremony. When recognized as the Veteran of the Year at the ceremony everyone in attendance stood and applauded Richard for his accomplishment. Everyone then sat down while Richard’s daughters, seated in front of him with the t-shirts on, remained standing. Although it took a while for Richard to determine what the girls were wearing, once he read the t-shirts he immediately look at me and said, “Dude.” Mayor O’Reilly then brought the girls down front and next to the podium so that everyone in attendance could see what they were wearing. The ceremony has been aired on the local cable television channel over the last two weeks. Additionally, in an article of the local paper they referred to Richard as a Marine veteran. The attached pictures were taken during and after the ceremony.
Sgt. Grit, thank you for having products available to assist in keeping the age old Navy/Marine tradition alive and well. Richard tells me that he will get back at me but this one will be tough to top. Fortunately, I don’t believe the Navy has a site like Sgt Grit.
Semper Fi
Ken VanHooser
2484603, Cpl., 2531/8662
USMC, 9/68 – 7/71