News>Team Edwards helps put 'Super' in Veterans Home Super Bowl party
Photos
Airman First Class Devin Dinter, 95th Communications Squadron, and Staff Sgt. Michael Burd, 95th Communications Squadron, prepare steaks for veterans during a Super Bowl party at the William J. "Pete" Knight Veterans Home in Lancaster, Calif. on Feb. 5.
Tech. Sgt. Eric Cullen, 95th Communications Squadron, grills steaks for veterans during a Super Bowl party at the William J. "Pete" Knight Veterans Home in Lancaster, Calif. on Feb. 5.
Veterans get treated to a steak dinner prepared by the Air Force Sergeants Association at Edwards during a Super Bowl party at the William J. "Pete" Knight Veterans Home in Lancaster, Calif. on Feb. 5.
2/7/2012 - LANCASTER, Calif. -- Staff Sgt. Michael Burd looked forward to spending Super Bowl Sunday with family, so he organized a group of volunteers to grill steaks and help put the "Super" in the party at the William J. "Pete" Knight Veterans Home in Lancaster.
There's no direct genetic link between Burd and any of the home's 56 residents, but rather the shared sacrifice of military service that forms this family bond.
"When we're here, we're with family," Burd said as conversations buzzed and steaks sizzled on the grill behind him. "I love coming here and spending time with the veterans," he said.
"You know, you see kids here today, moms, dads, married couples. This is our home on certain days, and they make us feel right at home," Burd said
The group was organized under the sponsorship of the Air Force Sergeants Association, of which Burd is the legislative trustee at Edwards. The dozen or so volunteers included Airmen, civilians, NCOs and a few children came along with their parents.
The sergeants association provided the steaks and the grilling expertise, the veterans home provided the rest of the meal and the NFL provided a close contest, which the New York Giants won with a last-minute touchdown over the New England Patiots 21-17.
AFSA volunteers have been coming out about every month to barbecue hamburgers and hot dogs for Monday Night Football games, according to Lawrence Hawkins, supervising rehabilitation therapist at the home.
Hawkins has enjoyed seeing the interaction between the veterans and members from Team Edwards.
"One of the very best things that comes from these events is the camaraderie," Hawkins said. "Our veterans really love to visit with the active-duty personnel, and the men and women from the base have just been great to talk to our veterans."
That's because those conversations are a two-way street, Burd said.
"The veterans here are as interested in what's going on today as we are to hear their stories," he said.
"My favorite part is sitting down and talking to them, when we're talking over dinner," said Airman 1st Class Devin Dinter, 95th Communications Squadron, a return volunteer.
"They want to hear what our experiences are," Dinter said. "Their stories are phenomenal with what they've been through."
Stories like those of James Hillier, a resident at the home for two years in April.
He was in the Air Force and stationed in Casablanca and Sculthorpe Airfield, England as the Korean War was winding down and the Cold War was heating up.
"My number one job was going out and finding locations to put radar sets. In Morocco I was up in the Atlas Mountains with the Berbers a lot, and I'd come back smelling like the back end of a camel.
"When I wasn't doing that I was flying in the tail end of a B-45 Tornado."
Hillier's story was punctuated with an occasional sip from his glass or paused by a glance up at the big-screen TV to see what caused the crowd to roar or the latest instant replay of the football game.
"At Sculthorpe we were the first deterrent for the Russians. They knew we were there, and every once in awhile one of their Bearcat bombers would 'get lost' and come pretty close to the air base with side-looking cameras, click, click, click, click."
He recalled Cold War encounters between his B-24 and Soviet MiG 15 fighters. The Tornado could outmaneuver the MiG jets, and most importantly it could outturn them, he said.
"If a MiG decided he was going to make a run at us, we'd just turn inside him," Hillier said, and while the MiG was skidding and trying to make the same turn the Tornado pilot would put the dive brakes and the wing flaps down to slow the plane rapidly.
"The B-45 would go shudder, shudder, shudder and slow down, and then I'd flip on the radar gun. As the MiG would go by I'd just pepper the whole side of his plane with radar blips. "They wouldn't come back after that," Hillier said.
Then, as now, clearly it was good to have air superiority - a lesson for the ages.
Events like this tug at Burd from different directions. He has a grandfather in a veterans assisted living facility in Austin, Texas and he worries because his grandfather doesn't benefit from the same kind of interaction from servicemembers or the community as do the veterans in Lancaster's Knight home.
"He's far away, and I can't visit him as much as I'd like, so I thought, 'What can I do to help,'" he said.
This fits, Burd said, and it's right in line with one of the two main planks of the AFSA mission to give back to veterans for their service. The first plank of the group is the legislative piece - to support the military way of life for active duty servicemembers and also veterans, he said.
"The important thing is to give back to the veterans, those who have served the country and make what we do today possible, because we don't know, had they not been there, had they not sacrificed what they sacrificed, we may not be here to do what we're doing today," Burd said.
Preserving the link to the past by showing gratitude in the present.
