Military Appreciation Days to command all of May

Military Appreciation Days has long outgrown its identity as a Memorial Day weekend staple for Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand. This seventh annual event — with tributes, celebrations, golf tournaments that always hit a hole-in-one for fundraising and remembrances — commands all of May.

Mark Kruea, spokesman for the city of Myrtle Beach, said this tradition “survives and grows because so many people throughout Horry County are involved in serving and thanking our troops and veterans.”

“From Rolling Thunder to Blue Star Mothers,” Kruea said, “and the Military Officers Association of America to Scents for Soldiers, everyone has the same goal. This year, we added the Vietnam Veterans Association of America, Chapter 925 Grand Strand, and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans are doing wonderful things for veterans. PGBA TriCare is a sponsor, too. The list goes on, and the common thread is military service, whether active duty, veteran, wounded, retired, reserve or National Guard, and the families who support them.”

The Vietnam Veterans of America chapter has become a busy partner, Kruea said, with a golf tourney benefit on May 14, a dinner dance May 16 (for which reservations are due Friday, providing history programs for students, and helping arrange stops of a traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Agent Orange Quilt of Tears.

For the 2015 parade, at 10:30 a.m. May 16, J.R. Martinez, an Iraq War veteran, and an actor, author and Mirror Ball Trophy winner from ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” will step right into the grand marshal’s role. He joins a roster of star veterans who have ridden in past parades: Buzz Aldrin, retired astronaut, in 2010; U.S. Sen. John McCain in 2011; Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston Jr., S.C. adjutant general, in 2012; Rocky Bleier, a four-time Super Bowl running back with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, in 2013; and Montel Williams, a motivational speaker who has penned several books, former TV show host.

Speaking about the parade of special guests who’ve taken turns, Kruea explained the process in a panel narrowing down people to ask, checking on availability and making formal invitations.

“Early on, the committee throws out names and creates a wish list for the coming year,” Kruea said. “We look for a celebrity type with a military background, and so far have been able to find great guests with compelling military histories. In most cases, we work through an agent, to check availability and schedule. In a few cases, I think someone knew someone who made a connection.”

He said an Air Force C-17 flyover looks probable for a special touch on the parade as well.

As former personnel from the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base return as visitors and see how the site, closed in 1993, has been transformed into a lively, 21st-century oasis melding residences, shopping, parks and ball fields, Kruea calls the reaction “100 percent positive.”

“They quickly discover the more than 150 historical markers scattered throughout the property,” he said, “and they love the new homes, the park and The Market Common. A few say they wish it looked like this when they were stationed there. Warbird Park is the star, though, with the planes on display and the Wall of Service. We get requests from across the country to take photos of names on the wall and send them to people who ordered a nameplate for a family member who worked on the base.”

The Military Appreciation Days celebration also reminds everyone, most of all, about the true meaning of Memorial Day, something to pause and absorb as something so truly American, for forebears and generations to come.

“Scheduling activities throughout the month helps expand on the meaning of Memorial Day,” Kruea said. “We wouldn’t have all these freedoms and opportunities without the men and women who sacrificed so much on our behalf. That’s what Memorial Day is about, but we help put that in perspective by honoring the larger military family during the rest of May.”

Music for everyone’s ears

The Andrew Thielen Big Band has become part of Military Appreciation Days tradition, entertaining at the family picnic after the annual parade. This year, the performance goes noon-2 p.m. May 16.

Thielen, a former Marine officer whose father earned a Purple Heart serving with the Marine Corps in the Korean War, treats this concert every year as an honor, especially because “patriotism runs deep in my family and in our band.”

“When we play our ‘Salute to the Armed Forces’ medley,” Thielen said, “ it always gives me chills to see the men and women that served or are serving in the military stand as their hymn is played.”

“Our band loves performing those cherished tunes that make everyone feel proud of America,” Thielen said, naming the respective anthem per branch:

The “Caissons” song for the Army, “Semper Paratu” for the Coast Guard, “Anchors Aweigh” for the Navy and two others that are self-explanatory, the “Marine Hymn” and the “Air Force Song.”

“Besides the military hymns,” Thielen said, “we also play a wide variety of songs emblematic of each veteran’s generation, starting with the 1940s, through the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and up to the hits of today.”

Thielen said the band, whose varied gigs have included inaugural balls, a Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association gathering in the nation’s capital and, just last week, playing on the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant for conventioneers, acts as musical ambassadors for the Grand Strand with all people and groups they entertain.

“Everywhere we go,” he said, “they ask where we are from, and we proudly tell them we are based in Myrtle Beach.”

Veterans groups lend big hand

Roger Pilcher, past president of the Military Officers Association of America, Grand Strand Chapter, said Military Appreciation Days has grown so much that it could be called “Military Appreciation Month.”

The retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, whose service began during the Korean War and included a year of combat in Vietnam, also helps on the planning committee for Military Appreciation Days. He said the local MOAA chapter’s annual golf tournament has grown in funding Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarships for high school seniors in line with the increase in his group’s membership.

“This allows us to help a lot of people,” Pilcher said.

He remembered how two $250 scholarships were given a few years ago as the start of this initiative, and now several at $2,000 each are awarded annually, and those recipients always love riding in Cadillacs in the parade every year. The MOAA chapter member rolls also have tripled in that time frame to 150 from about 50.

Presenting medals and certificates to recognize graduating JROTC cadets across Horry and Georgetown counties, and gold bars to graduating ROTC cadets from Coastal Carolina University, gives MOAA members an extra role to relish, said Pilcher, who takes part in hand-delivering such honors at North Myrtle Beach High School.

Pilcher lauded the teamwork between the city and health-care provider PGBA, as well as many other local groups, such as Scents for Soldiers, for making Miltary Appreciation Days memorable for special guests, including warriors in recovery from combat wounds. He said groups of recovering service personnel, maybe as many as 50 this year, are brought in from other coastal states in the region to enjoy a week’s vacation — not for any “media frenzy” — but as an ultimate way of saying thanks.

Talking with the guests, Pilcher also marvels at these wounded warriors’ universal resolve to want “to get back and do their job” again. That spirit and devotion they share, he said, signify talent and strength worth passing along to future generations.

Calling himself “super blessed,” Pilcher said, “you feel so good to be able to do something” for other veterans.

‘They did a lot for us’

Bill DeVaughn was among the 15-member committee at Rolling Thunder SC3 Grand Strand Chapter that arranged the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Tribute for noon Saturday at St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Myrtle Beach.

The Rolling Thunder chapter has taken part in or hosted events for veterans of the Vietnam War, in which DeVaughn also served, and in other local events such as Honor Flight Grand Strand/Myrtle Beach, and in special salutes to women in the military and to Korean War veterans.

DeVaughn, SC3’s president, said its members agreed that with the withdrawal and drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively, after more than a decade in each place, the public might forget too easily about all the time and sacrifices that personnel made there.

“They did a lot for us,” he said, “keeping the bad guys away from us.”

Pointing out how this war on terror, unlike other conflicts, prompted call-ups of so many National Guard units and reservists, with many men and women serving multiple tours of duty, DeVaughn said the repeat deployments also posed extra hardships on families.

“You put all that together,” he said, “and it’s definitely worth paying tribute to these people.”

DeVaughn said Rolling Thunder SC3 members hope this event, although informal “and low key,” becomes a yearly celebration of thanks, getting “bigger and bigger.”

“We can’t have too many” he said, welcoming community turnout to express gratitude.

Crews from the SC3 chapter always treasure taking part in Military Appreciation Days activities, which this year will include the march, planned for May 25, and the formal Memorial Day ceremony with the Grand Strand Patriotic Alliance.

“It’s a day to remember those who died for our country,” DeVaughn said. “It’s a solemn time where it’s more than just the beginning of summer. Everybody ought to remember that’s why they can cook out.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Military Appreciation Days to command all of May."