| Two sergeants and a truck deliver holiday miracle |
MARIETTA, Ohio - On a gray, misty winter morning this past December, a four-vehicle convoy consisting of a Humvee and three 2 1/2-ton trucks loaded with appliances, clothes, food, furniture and Christmas presents departed the Rickenbacker Army Enclave in Columbus bound for Marietta, 120 miles away. The convoy, quietly organized by a couple of noncommissioned officers from the Ohio Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention Battalion, was delivering an early Christmas miracle to the unsuspecting family of a fellow Ohio National Guard recruiter whose new house burned down on Thanksgiving eve, just one day after moving in. Although the fire took with it all of their personal possessions, the family of Sgt. Robert Burris spent Thanksgiving at a relative’s house profoundly thankful that they were alive and well. But Burris and his wife, Meredith, couldn’t help but wonder what Christmas would be like for their three young children, Trey, 4, Olivia, 2, and Giovanni, 1, after such a devastating loss and no place to call home. They agreed they would have to “cancel” Christmas this year and make the most out of a very tough situation. To make matters worse, Burris was forced to leave his family in the care of relatives as he departed for a previously scheduled Army leadership course less than a week later. The Burris family sorely needed a “Christmas miracle,” Meredith said during an interview in early December. Little did she know, a miracle was already in the making. As the Burris house continued to smolder on Thanksgiving Day, Sgt. Maj. Donald Henline sent out a force-wide e-mail appeal to the 250 members of the Recruiting and Retention Battalion to try to garner support for the Burris family. “They need everything from small appliances to furniture to clothes…and anything else the mind can imagine,” the e-mail read. Staff Sgt. Gray Hutchinson, a personnel sergeant for Recruiting and Retention Battalion Headquarters in Columbus, read Henline’s email Nov. 26 and as he reached for the mouse to close the e-mail, he thought “Poor guys… What if this was my family?” He lifted his finger off of the mouse and swung his chair around to face Sgt. Jason White, who had just read the same e-mail, and had turned to face him, too. “We have to do something about this now!” White said. “Absolutely,” Hutchinson agreed. The two sergeants forwarded Henline’s message to everyone they thought could help, including a former member of Hutchinson’s Army Reserve unit—Sgt. 1st Class James Meade—who Hutchinson knew maintained a vast e-mail network of friends, family and troops. After receiving the email, Meade immediately mobilized his contacts—from local church organizations to troops deployed to Iraq—in support of the Burris family. Right away, donations and offers of support began pouring in, quickly creating a logistical challenge. The troops collaborated to set up collection points, storing items wherever they could find space. “It was exciting, but then quickly became overwhelming,” White said. Both sergeants had already stored as much as they could in their own garages and desperately needed to find a bigger location in which to store the donations that were still steadily coming in. First Sgt. Charles Berg from Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 137th Aviation Regiment, provided a much-needed storage area on the Rickenbacker Army Enclave, and later was instrumental in arranging for the vehicles that would be used to transport the items to the Burris family’s new home. “When I heard what happened to Sergeant Burris and his family, I was determined to provide whatever help was needed,” Berg said. “I was very moved by the National Guard community rallying to help one of our own.” For three weeks, donations continued to pour in from all over the world—including Iraq. Local businesses got involved to help with the larger items the Burris family would need. White contacted the “MAP Furniture Bank” in Columbus, and a few days later, a couple of 2 1/2-ton trucks were loaded to capacity with more than 50 pieces of household goods and furniture including bed frames, an entertainment center, lamps, refrigerator, stove and even a large screen TV. Value City Furniture donated mattresses for the entire family. During this time, word of the growing “Christmas miracle” reached Ohio National Guard leadership. Brig. Gen. Matthew L. Kambic, the assistant adjutant general for Army, stepped in to facilitate the use of military vehicles and personnel to transport the much-needed items to the Burris family. “There was never any question that this was the right thing to do,” Kambic said. “This is just one more example of why I’m so proud of the men and women who wear our nation’s uniform.” While Burris was at Warrior Leader Course, Meredith told Hutchinson the Red Cross had found the family a suitable home to live in and that Dec. 10 would be their move-in date. Determined to ensure the family would not move into an empty house, Hutchinson and White set an aggressive delivery plan into motion with just a few days to pull it all together . On Dec. 10, just 21 days after the Burris family’s house burned to the ground, “Operation Two Sergeants and a Truck” embarked from Rickenbacker Army Enclave bound for Marietta. In fact, two sergeants and a truck had become 14 Soldiers and nine trucks, after the four-vehicle convoy from Columbus was joined by an additional five vehicles—all filled to capacity with donations from around the state—as they reached the Marietta outskirts. Marietta law enforcement, alerted to the mission, escorted the vehicles to the Burris’ new house with Santa Claus in the lead vehicle. It was not the pitter-patter of reindeer hooves on the roof but the rumbling of Army vehicles that got the Burris children’s attention. Peeking out over the window sill, their eyes lit up when Santa stepped out of the Humvee, threw a gift-laden bag of toys over his shoulder, and approached their front door. “Ho-Ho-Ho!” he boomed as he began handing the children toys. “I’m here to give you back some of the toys you lost.” As Hutchinson and White approached the nearly empty house, Meredith met them at the front door. When she saw the street lined with Army trucks filled to capacity along with the 14 Soldiers who volunteered their time to help, tears of joy and gratitude began to flow uncontrollably. The house, whose emptiness reminded Meredith of just how much the fire had taken from her family just three weeks earlier, was immediately transformed from an empty house into a new home. |
