New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘Remember, honor, say the name aloud’
Gold Star Mother president to speak at Wreaths Across America ceremony
BRANFORD — When her oldest son Todd died at 26 in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Texas in November 2004, Becky Christmas worried that his name would disappear. An Army captain, he’d served in the 44th air defense artillery unit while deployed in support of Iraqi Freedom. He’d just spent Thanksgiving with his wife and family at their Wagon Mound, New Mexico ranch.
On Tuesday, Christmas, the president of American Gold Star Mothers, Inc., will be Grand Marshal of a massive convoy that will roll through Branford at 1:30 p.m. as part of Wreaths Across America, a national initiative to remember veterans and their families during the holidays.
As the featured speaker at the program at Branford Fire Headquarters at 2 p.m., she’ll also share how, as a Gold Star mother — a mother of a fallen service member — she’s kept her son’s name, and memory, alive.
For the second year in a row, Branford will be one of a handful of scheduled stops during the 700-mile route from Columbia Falls, Maine, to Arlington National Cemetery. That’s thanks to the efforts of Lt. Cmdr. Dottie Packer, Nurse Corps and retired Navy, and Pamela Bold, retired chief petty officer of the U.S. Coast Guard.
The 2-mile-long fleet will be composed of 200 volunteers traveling in buses, SUVs, and specially wrapped WAA vehicles, including Gold Star and Blue Star families, as well as dozens of 18-wheelers, along with motorcycle escorts of state and local police, and the Patriot Guard. The trucks will transport thousands of balsam wreaths on the week-long trek.
“It’s a sight to behold,” said Packer, who’s encouraging Shoreline residents to line Route 1 from Regal Cinemas to Branford Fire Headquarters and to raise a banner or wave a flag in welcome and support. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to show gratitude for the sacrifice of fallen service members and their families.”
That act of remembering also furthers the mission of
American Gold Star Mothers, according to Christmas, whom the ShoreLine Times reached at her ranch in Wagon Mound, New Mexico.
“AGSM was started by a woman named Grace Darling Seibold in 1928,” she said. “Her son disappeared fighting in World War I, so she spent years working at veterans hospitals in hopes of finding him.” All the while, “she was meeting all these women who were thinking the same thing — they hadn’t heard from their children and went to find them.”
What they found, she said, “was other children and other mothers they could support.”
Eventually, Seibold learned of her son’s death, but continued her community service.
Not only that. “She organized a group of mothers whose sons had lost their lives in military service with the purpose of comforting one another and giving loving care to hospitalized veterans confined in government hospitals far from home,” Christmas said.
It’s a purpose that has made a profound impact on her life from the time she joined American Gold Star Mothers in 2006. “I first met other GSM mothers in New Mexico,” she said. “Some were mothers from the Vietnam era. They showed me they had lived full lives and had also continued the mission that their child could not, by helping others.”
For Christmas, the partnership with Wreaths Across America is a natural one. “We’re blending our similar missions toward one goal: to remember and honor as many of our fallen American heroes as possible,” she said.
Packer agreed. “The idea that powers WAA is that a person dies twice, once when he stops breathing, and a second time when someone mentions his or her name for the last time,” she said. “That’s why, when laying a wreath, they ask us to say the person’s name out loud.”
At noon on Saturday,
Dec. 15, at the end of seven days leading America’s longest veterans parade, that’s precisely what Christmas will be doing, together with 44,000 volunteers placing 241,000 wreaths on headstones at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as countless other volunteers at 1,400 additional locations in all 50 states, at sea and abroad.
It’s a continuation of her goal of not only sustaining the legacy of her son in service to our country but also, as she put it, “ensuring that no fallen soldier, or their family, is ever forgotten.”
Which takes us back to Tuesday, Dec. 11 in Branford.
“The sons and daughters of Gold Star mothers wrote a blank check payable to the USA for an amount up to and including their lives,” said Packer. “So did their families. That’s why Pam and I wanted this stop in Branford. This is our way of saying we recognize them and we’ll remember them.”
In Branford, the convoy will roll out from exit 55, off Interstate 95 at approximately 1:30 p.m., followed by the program at 2 p.m. at the firehouse, featuring Christmas.
For more information about the WAA, visit www. wreathsacrossamerica.org.