Knee Deep in the Hooah!

I hear the term “troop support” and “support our troops” used by  a lot of people. The people I know can usually list the actual things they do to “support” the troops. They believe it is an action and not just words that are used to make a statement (eg., “I support the troops but not the war…”).

Opportunities present themselves to us — sometimes when we are actively pursuing them, and other times when we are just doing the daily grind of work and life. One man had an opportunity to respect fallen soldiers… and he seized it.

Because he cared, war dead get the respect they’re due

By GAIL ROSENBLUM, Star Tribune
Last update: March 7, 2009 – 8:50 PM

Excerpt

Eric Besvold missed the HBO premiere of “Taking Chance” a few weeks ago, but he hopes to catch it on DVD.

Besvold, 35, is drawn to the true story of Marine Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, who escorts the body of 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps, killed in Iraq, home to Dubois, Wyo. Besvold has traveled much the same road.

In June 2006, Besvold, a St. Paul resident who works on the baggage ramp for Northwest Airlines, was jolted by what he saw one afternoon. After the normal sea of luggage down the conveyer belt came a military casket, “like just another piece of freight.” He believed there was nothing intentional about the abandonment of military procedures guaranteeing respectful handling of soldiers’ remains. “No one knew anymore,” he said. “There hasn’t been a war in a long time.”

Still, he thought, it wasn’t right.

Throughout that summer and into the fall, Besvold recruited co-workers and supervisors up the ranks to change that. With the help of managers Steve Redeske and Bill White, along with Bill Lentsch, senior vice president of flight operations, Besvold ordered a special cart to be used only for transporting deceased soldiers. He decorated it with magnetic military emblems purchased by the airline, then bought flags with his own money to fly above the caskets. Duluth VFW Post 6320/137 donated the first casket flag.

“This was, frankly, a very easy thing for us to support,” said Lentsch, who credits Besvold with doing the lion’s share of the work. “These are people who fought hard for our country and deserve our respect.”Besvold, a third-generation Navy man who served in Kuwait in 2005, is most proud that he has taught nearly 50 fellow ramp workers the correct procedures for honoring the military dead. The routine starts from the moment they arrive (first out of the cargo hold) to the moment they are returned (first on) to the cargo hold for the next flight, if MSP is not their last stop. In this manner, airport workers have honored 15 fallen soldiers from Minnesota and Wisconsin in the past two years, with more than 200 for those en route elsewhere. READ entire article