I just wanted to express my thanks to Sgt Grit for your assistance in helping me get my Dress Blues ready for the 2012 Birthday Ball with 2/14, Kilo Company in Huntsville, AL. While I spent my active duty time attached to 3d MAW, MAG-11, VMFP-3, I am welcomed each year to celebrate the birth of the Marines.
I have since been off of active duty for 20 years, and the picture I have included is from the 2012 Marine Corps Ball. I am also proud to say, these are the same Blues I bought myself 26-27 years ago, and I could not have gotten them ready without the help of Sgt. Grit and some of the fine ladies working there which helped me tremendously. I thank you, and salute you.
If you will allow me some time, I would like to recount what happened to me on Veterans Day last year.
Proud to be a Marine!
Many times I have attended Veterans Day events just to be shoved aside after the parade, so families can get on with their picnic. Believing the true appreciation for Veterans Day is in the fact it offers a time for families to get together and have fun, instead of remembering why or how they are able to enjoy this time due to the sacrifices of others.
I attended the Veterans Day program at my son’s high school last year (2012), and since I managed to have my Blues ready for the Marine Corps Ball by this time, I decided to wear them. The Army ROTC at the high school works hard to put on their Veterans Day program, and do an excellent job. I am very proud for my youngest son to be a part of it.
In all honesty, I was so nervous stepping out of my truck, I’m glad my wife was there with me for support. I will not go into detail of the program they put on, but to say they did an outstanding job. This is more to tell of my surprise and appreciation for my son’s fellow classmates. I could not make it into the building to watch the program, or back out again to my truck without a student stopping me to tell me “Thank you” for my service. With some yelling it from a hundred feet away! Needless to say my pride was inflated many times over, and I could not stop to thank them due the many emotions I was feeling.
I will never again take for granted how people, especially our young people, feel and appreciate Veterans and Service Men/Women. I am sure some of them were drawn to do so by my Dress Blues, but it still blew me away to be personally thanked by so many students of their own accord. These days I stand a little taller and a lot prouder for all my time in the Marine Corps, knowing everything I did was worth the effort.
Thank you Sgt. Grit for your help in getting my Dress Blues ready. Mostly I would like to thank the students of Brewer High School for renewing my faith in people understanding why they have the freedoms they have today.
Floyd G. Shaw Semper Fi