Blue Water Navy

On March 16, 2009, Tom Belcher, the National Adjutant General for the Iraq War Veterans, send out an email asking for help in putting in a lawn for an Iraqi soldier. His wife had put that on a WISH BOOK entry. I responded that we would see what we could do to get that done, and with the help of our Chaplain, Rev. Bob Lewis, we hunted down some agencies that support our veterans with this sort of thing. We ended up talking with Project Evergreen, who got to work looking for contractors in this area that had signed up with their program. We had originally tried to hit a window of time when Sgt. Westbrook was home on leave in June. The home is located in Fountain, CO, not far from Colorado Springs a couple hours south of Denver.

We had a series of false starts when the key contractor didn't follow up with us and went dark - we later found out they went out of business. So we found an alternative contractor, and through Project Evergreen, found multiple parties to donate the sod, put in a sprinkler system, provide shrubbery and flowers, with the main contractor to oversee and bring the heavy equipment. Rev. Lewis got the local work volunteers from various veteran groups. We had things ready to go in late September when we received word that Sgt. Westbrook has been wounded in a firefight (I think in Afghanistan, but not certain). So we put things on hold.

On October 7, SGT. Kenneth Westbrook died at Walter Reed Hospital. But all involved kept their promises. Yesterday, October 24, the job was completed. Mission accomplished. The local news station picked up the story and conducted an interview honoring SGT Westbrook and featuring the work on the yard that had just been completed. The story with video is at http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/65920927.html# . I sent the following email to Tom Belcher:

Tom,
As you might recall, this original call for help was picked up by the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association <www.bluewaternavy.org> in Denver and we started pushing on it pretty quickly, hoping to fit this into a time window when Sgt. Westbrook was home on leave. Because of some false starts with landscape vendors, this project was pushed to the right all the way until yesterday, Saturday Oct 24th.
I know you're on the larger distribution list that has followed the development of this project from the start, and we'll be distributing some pictures as soon as Rev. Lewis can get them out of his camera. But I wanted to take this opportunity to salute you and your generation of Warriors, who we'll gladly stand behind any day. And even though some of us are finding it a little difficult to actually stand some days, I just wanted to say, veteran to veteran, that "we've got your six."
Best regards,

John Paul Rossie, Executive Director
BWNVVA
bluewaternavy.org

Reverend Lewis has posted some good pictures of this project at http://rclewis.spaces.live.com/default. ... D490229867

-JR

JR,

I think this is amazing. Thank you for sharing.

Cindy

Hello Every one,
thanks Cpt. Rossie.
Many put in a lot more than we did.
In Faith,
Lou