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***image1***When Leo McHale was in the Air Force in 1960, the Cold War was a constant cause for concern with American civilians and military.
A different combination of mental and physical duress is challenging servicemembers involved today with the Global War on Terror. So Mr. McHale is doing any small thing he can to help unify national and international morale.
Mr. McHale initiated a program aimed at spotlighting the U.S. troops along with the medical staffers who play their own roles during wartime. Flags are signed by school children and hospital workers in the United States, then displayed overseas. He also buys phone cards and restaurant gift certificates with his own money and mails them to be distributed to injured troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
“What I wanted to do was to get the flags signed, then have that same flag sent back to the hospital they originated from,” Mr. McHale said.
After the terrorist attacks in 2001 and the subsequent anthrax scares in the United States, Mr. McHale took his own stand for the perceived “good guys” who were being targeted.
“It started with letters from students, which I got the kids to write, then could send to people here or in other parts of the world,” Mr. McHale said. “I was able to send a large number of letters to people who were deployed on ships at sea at that time.
“My first yellow-ribbon flag was from children at Ballenger Creek Elementary School in Maryland. Then I had the staff at Frederick Memorial Hospital sign another one. Both of those flags have been returned and are back here in the United States.”
Letters from school kids raised the morale of Soldiers, civilians and public works people who find themselves in some way affected by the terrorist rhetoric or actions. His yellow-ribbon flags are covered with signatures of hospital workers at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland, then shipped to Germany to be displayed at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Staffers here add their signatures and the flag eventually gets sent back to its originating spot.
“It shows the people back in Maryland that a lot of people here in Germany are aware of what they are doing,” said Sgt. 1st Class Ted Garcia, the liaison in Landstuhl for Mr. McHale and his program. “Mr. McHale’s intent is for his actions to cross many boundaries.”
Another batch of phone and restaurant cards arrived last week and was distributed to service- members recuperating in the hospital. Mr. McHale spent time in a military hospital at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas when he was in the Air Force. When you are out on your own and alone, he said, you see how meaningful letters or any communication home can be.
“Those items are for operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom people,” Sergeant Garcia said. “Those people are happier when they are able to use a phone card or buy a meal. He makes people smile – that’s what he does.”
