God Speed 455th Engineering Company and Come Home Safe

Mason Flemmer is the orchestra teacher at CVHS and GMS. He is also the company commander for the 455th Engineering Company. His company is being deployed for the 2nd time to Afghanistan. Today I had the opportunity to attend the Departure Ceremony for his company.

I haven't ever been to such a ceremony so I don't know if every ceremony has the same tenor, but I really enjoyed this one. It was a beautiful, warm late summer morning. The stands were crowed with family, friends, and other supporters. We were privileged to hear from CVHS's principal, an Iraqi Freedom veteran, a female officer, and the main commander of the division. Each one shared a message of hope, pride, and gratitude. They also encouraged the families of the soldiers to ask for help, to realize that asking for help is absolute necessity because their soldier can not do anything to fix a problem when they are across the world.

Mason addressed his soldiers and the crowd. He spoke of his pride to serve, the preparations they have gone through, and their dedication to fulfill their responsibility of finding and clearing out all the IED's (improvised explosive devices). He then led his company in the Soldier's Creed. Seeing those men (there might have been some women in the company but it was hard to tell from a distance and all looking similar) and hearing them in unison repeat the words of the Creed, brought more than a tear or two to my eye. And as the benediction was said and then the Colors retired, my heart swelled with emotion again.

I was moved by all of the speeches, especially as I looked around the stands to see all of the young children and more than one pregnant wife that would be without their dads and husbands for the next year. It really hit home how much these soldiers and families sacrifice for the sake of our country and to protect the world from tyranny. I went away from the ceremony thinking about our country, our privileges, our freedoms. I was so grateful for all that I have because of men and women like the ones in the 455th who, for generations, have believed in our country and have been willing to place the country above themselves to protect our freedoms.