What is quoted above demonstrates the connection between us, the Dames, and the men and women being sent to Iraq. While most of us cannot join the National Guard at this point in our lives, we can reach out to support, in the ways we can, our troops.

The Mission of the 128th Chemical Company is to provide thorough and operational equipment decontamination, large-area smoke, nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) reconnaissance, NBC warning and reporting, and chemical staff support to a heavy infantry division.

Home of the Free Because of the Brave
          by the Vice President, Patriotic Services, NSCDA/PA

“God grants Liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.” Daniel Webster In May of ‘07 I became the Vice President of Patriotic Services for Pennsylvania.  I thought I would have time to learn my new job as the summer and fall progressed. Wrong!  My predecessor, called me June 20th with an urgent message.
We, the NSCDA/PA, had been given the opportunity to host a family picnic for 90 National Guard troops of the 128th Chemical Company and their families being deployed to Iraq.  Great!  When is the picnic?  August?  September?  Wrong!  The picnic is July 8th.  We expect approximately 200-250.  WOW!   Now what?  How can we do this?  It is July…everyone is away…we only have 14 days…where do we get the food for that many…how do we pay for this?  No Problem!  We hit the ground running and never looked back. We can do it!  Nothing is too good for our troops.  So, with the help and guidance of a First Sergeant of the 128th and the outpouring of generosity by businesses and individuals, we planned the best picnic ever.  With five days to go, we learned that the numbers had swelled to 500!  We hired the executive chef from a local club to cater the event at his cost.

The local bakery, Rilling’s, gave us sheet cakes and cookies for all, Pepsi Bottling Co. donated cases of drinks, a Jack & Jill Ice Cream driver gave us 15% off, the four-piece band played for less than half their normal price, the Phillie Phanatic appearance was donated by The Philadelphia Phillies, and a professional photographer donated all her professional services. Each family received a portrait.
A clown/balloon artist entertained the kids and volunteers gave out pinwheels, coloring books and crayons.  The Junior League singing group, "The Larks", with a Dame member, sang many wonderful songs and one of our own Dames sang The National Anthem.  Many local caterers donated food and equipment. All the paper products were donated as well. It was great! What was most meaningful?  The feeling of community.  The Dames were able to contribute to the soldiers’ enjoyment of their families and to encourage friendship between these families for the hard times ahead.  We had been told the soldiers going are all pretty local so that mutual support would be potentially available.  (Editor’s note – no social event had ever been held by the unit.)
We did it!  Board members, husbands and friends, pulled together and literally performed a miracle.  I feel that this type of community service is important and very relevant in today’s world. Now what?  We plan to keep in touch with the families during the absence of their loved ones.  We want to facilitate communication between families and to supply what is needed to the soldiers and their families when asked.  We want to make a difference.

The NSCDA/PA Bids Farewell to the Troops
            by the Corresponding Secretary and immediate past VP of Patriotic Services

On July 8, with under a month of lead time, the NSCDA/PA gave a picnic for 500 people, 90 soldiers deploying two days later for training in Mississippi and then to Iraq, and their families.  Almost 40 Dames volunteers, their spouses, and other friends will long hold it in their own hearts.  All were honored to serve these troops and all were touched by hundreds of experiences along the way. 

It came about this way.  In February, the president of the NSCDA/PA, talked to a friend involved with the First City Troop in Philadelphia.  He talked about the local Army Family Assistance Office, which supports families of deployed soldiers and hospitalized veterans.  Our President passed the information to the then-chairman of Patriotic Services. 

In calling Army Family Assistance back in February, our PS Chairman tried to identify any unmet needs where the NSCDA could help.  It was challenging: the Army gets lots of similar offers; they have good reason for caution.  They also don’t know the Dames. 

But persistence won the day and ideas were shared with the Board in Philadelphia and with the Allegheny Committee.  Along the way, talking with a person in the Family Assistance Office, we learned that when she’d been deployed to Viet Nam some 30 years ago, there was no good send-off.  She would have loved to have a special photograph of her family to take with her.  This resonated - it was important later on. The Army did not want to plan anything before June when the identity of the next Pennsylvania Company to be deployed would be de-classified.

They would leave for Iraq soon and were from the local community, we were told. This indicated that a picnic or other function for the soldiers and their families might be a good way to let the families to get to know one another better, easing things so that they would be more apt to support one another during the deployment, and meaningful to the departing soldiers.  But the Army didn’t want to hear from the NSCDA again until June.  In February, the Board approved a motion to include $1,000 in the new year’s budget to defray costs of doing an event and gave the VP’s the power to act if the call came for us to implement our plan.  In June, our PS Chairman followed up again, and again and again.  On the 18th of June contact was reestablished.  More negotiations were required, and a few days later, the NSCDA/PA had a direct Army contact and agreement with them that we’d give a picnic.

There’s often a kicker.  This time it was that the deployment would be weeks earlier than we expected and the picnic had to be July 8! We went into high gear, with involvement of not one but two Patriotic Services chairs, one retiring and one new and full support from the president and the board.  The incoming chair, began her tenure with flying colors.  The outgoing chair stayed involved, and our President, later distinguishing herself as a sledge hammer-bearing executive, making sure we had what we needed to pitch a tent on the grass Army field.  And it was our President who arranged for a photographer to take a professional photograph of each and every soldier and his or her family, one of the best things that we did.

A former NSCDA/PA treasurer and current Vice President for Historical Activities, came home early from vacation to help out.  Every time a Dame learned about the project, terrific new elements were added.   One Dame provided good-luck pinwheels for all attendees and another provided all sorts of games for the children.  Another Dame arranged for her singing group, the Junior League Larks, to perform.  One Board member, a professional opera soprano, agreed to sing the National Anthem a cappella. Many donations were secured, including the Phillie Phanatic, a balloon lady, ice cream, sodas, ice, food, a four-man band and, most importantly, the executive chef of a local club to donate his time and many resources of the club to help out with the huge quantities of food that would be required.  This was a true collaboration among our three committees--Patriotic Services, Historical Activities and Museum Properties.  Many of our Board members, husbands and friends joined together to make this a day to remember.

Our Army contact guessed we’d be feeding 200-225.  Five days before the event, the Army realized the number would be 500.  It felt like a loaves-and-fishes situation, but the Dames were equal to it.  The $1,000 budget had to go by the boards and we decided to do what needed to be done and figure out the details later. The day of the picnic was a scorcher in the high nineties.  The troops and their families were in meetings for over four hours before the picnic. We set up, we cooked, we prayed for clear skies and enough food.

Then, folks began drifting in.  An old man with a cane. A group of children. The band started playing.

The end result was a show stopper.  It will never to be forgotten by anyone who was there.  There is the recollection of a tall soldier walking out of the Armory, holding a newborn high on his shoulder, studying his copy of his family picture through glistening eyes.  There was the awkward jitterbug on the lawn by one soldier and a Dame to “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.” At its end, the soldier bowed to the Dame and thanked her for giving him “my last dance for a year.” 

There was the memory of the pathway up to the food tables, lined on both sides with red, white and blue good luck pinwheels donated by a Dame, and the children’s delight on seeing them and the toys and games provided by another Dame for the children.

A couple of the Dames attended the formal send-off the next day, and some of the children were still carrying their pinwheels.