It was a crisp but glorious morning at the Silverbell Army Heliport, near Marana, where Arizona National Guard soldiers assembled to attend a ceremony marking their deployment to Afghanistan. The “Silverbell Sendoff” was attended by well over 3,000 soldiers with their families, plus contingents from the Arizona Rangers, the Civil Air Patrol, the Army J-ROTC, Army Family Resource Groups, and a number of other local groups, including school kids. The VFW Department of Arizona was represented by many volunteers and senior officers from the Department and Auxiliary. This event featured a short presentation by Army officers, and quite a number of activities designed for children; including distribution of stuffed toys; ‘bouncing castles’ and instant pictures where the kids created their own picture frames. VFW volunteers were engaged in almost all of the activities, including serving lunch.

            The “Silverbell Sendoff” ceremony was very much a VFW Ladies auxiliary show. Planning for the event actually began last August, when District-5 President Kim Sloan performed a critical role in organizing event activities, with extensive fundraising and recruiting donations from local business. Members of the Guard and their Family Resource Groups had no previous experience organizing an event of this scope, thus Kim’s wisdom was absolutely essential to its smooth execution, which went off without a glitch.             Volunteers from the VFW Department of Arizona, and the Ladies Auxiliary in particular, deserve a resounding round of applause for this one. Planning and execution of this event sets a standard of excellence that future planners will be hard pressed to match, much less exceed.

     The event was the certification ceremony (certifying completion of training at Ft. Hood, TX) and deployment sendoff of the 1-285^th Armed Reconnaissance Battalion.  Members of the deploying 640^th Aviation Support Battalion were also invited to participate in this sendoff but since they were not required to attend they took advantage of the time off and spent it with their families.  There are approximately 450 soldiers in 1-285^th that deployed to Afghanistan under the command of LTC Donald Kwan.  Most of the soldiers in this unit were stationed at the Silverbell Heliport (located at Pinal Air Park) and the entire installation was invited to participate in the “Silverbell Sendoff”.  Over 2,500 soldiers and family members attended this event.  Planning for this event started six months ago and was eventually taken on as a District 5 project with the planning committee consisting of VFW/Auxiliary members, Family Readiness Groups’ representatives, the 1-285^th  Rear Detachment Officer and other military representatives, the Marana Chamber of Commerce and other military support groups.   Almost every Auxiliary in District 5 got involved either by donating funds or volunteering in some capacity.  The VFW MAP Program was the primary financial sponsor and other Tucson and Marana business donated items entirely or donated goods “in kind”.   JrROTC members and Sea Cadets were also in charge of coordinating parking.  

     Auxiliary members handed out donated teddy bears to the younger children of deploying soldiers and wrist bands to older children.  This program was started by a chaplain with the understanding that the child would have something physical to hold onto and talk to when they missed their soldier parent.  We also had our photo project where we took pictures of the child with their soldier and the child decorated a foam picture frame with hearts and flowers.  The child got to keep a picture and the soldier had a picture to take with him.  This was such a great idea that many of the soldiers had their picture taken with spouses, girl friends, parents and extended families.  Even the adults had fun making the picture frames.  An Auxiliary member and her son provided music.  Both VFW and Auxiliary members had their hands full feeding all that attended. 

     Department Commander Ray Thomas and Department President Judy Hamlin gave every soldier an Operation Uplink Phone Card and encouraged them to please use it to call home and let their family know that they’d arrived safely at their destination.  The soldiers were very grateful.  Department Sr. Vice President Debi Rankin and husband Bob helped out with the photo project and VFW certified recruiters Betty Gripp and Marvin Link were very busy signing up new members and answering questions about the VFW and Auxiliary. 

     This event was a success on many levels.  We learned how to better work with the Family Readiness Groups, the military and other community support groups.  The soldiers and family members now see the VFW and Auxiliary as the positive organizations they are.  We came face to face with soldiers that are defending freedom across the world and let them know that the VFW supports them and will help take care of their families while they’re gone.

Department Auxiliary VP Ronnie Heinemann distributes stuffed toys at the “Silverbell Sendoff” event. Well over 1,000 such toys, donated by the VFW Ladies Auxiliary, were given to Soldiers children during the ceremony.

VFW Volunteers at the “Silverbell Sendoff” Ceremony (L-R): Department Sr VC Betty Gripp, Department President Judith Hamlin, and Jim Ellars.

VFW Volunteer Jim Ellars helps distribute lunch boxes at the “Silverbell Sendoff” event. Several thousand lunches, donations recruited by the VFW Ladies Auxiliary, were served during the ceremony.

Department Sr VC Betty Gripp with VFW Volunteers, distribute VFW literature during the “Silverbell Sendoff” ceremony. There was considerable interest in the VFW demonstrated by the 3,000 soldiers who were deploying to Afghanistan.

District-5 President, and event organizer, Kim Sloan, with Department Commander Ray Thomas, help kids construct picture frames at the “Silverbell Sendoff” event. This activity was clearly the ‘crowd favorite’, as several hundred pictures/frames were created during the ceremony. This activity, with donations of cameras, film and stickers by local business, was created and organized by Kim Sloan.

Department Commander Ray Thomas with Department President Judy Hamlin, distributes VFW telephone cards at the “Silverbell Sendoff” event. Several hundred phone cards were given out during the ceremony.

Poster that lists contributors to the “Silverbell Sendoff” ceremony. The VFW Department of Arizona, especially the Ladies Auxiliary, was the most significant participant in this event: in actual dollars, in merchandise, and in volunteers. Almost all other ‘contributors’ were recruited by members of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary.