Meeting Babe

While traveling back from my 5 year college reunion I had quite the celebrity encounter in the Philadelphia airport. He might not look to you like a celebrity. I highly doubt if you lined up 100 people many people would have been to spot him out of a crowd, but he is indeed a celebrity. There are newspaper articles, books and an entire miniseries about this man. Still, as I said, not many people would likely be able to pick him out of a lineup.

I came running to Gate B19 to catch my US Airways flight out of breath and annoyed at just about everything. I was annoyed I was in the Philly airport to begin with, but my original nonstop flight the night before had been canceled and it was all they had. I was annoyed that my flight that morning was delayed and then sat on the runway for thirty minutes. I was annoyed I had to run through the airport and race to catch a shuttle because of that stupid delay. I was annoyed my gate was all the way at the end of the terminal. Never mind that I had just spent an amazing weekend reconnecting with my college friends, all these little inconveniences were just adding up and stressing me out.

That is until I arrived at the gate, realized I hadn't missed the connection and looked around, as I always do, at who I would be sharing the plane with. That's when I saw Babe. The first thing I noticed was a 101st Airborne cap on his head. I always notice veterans when I go out and if I haven't heard of the unit that they proudly display on their cap, I always make an effort to look it up when I get home. I looked closer at this man and saw a 506th battalion logo, then a Currahee patch. I took a long hard look at his ruddy face and I thought to myself, "my gosh...that's Babe Heffron!"

Now for those who don't know, I have been quite the military history enthusiast ever since visiting Normandy in 2001. That is honestly the whole reason I became a history major and, consequently, a history teacher. I stood out on that beach and looked back up and I visited the battlefields and cemeteries in the area and was just in awe that I didn't know more about this place and what happened there (I was 18 at the time).

It started with a basic book I bought for myself in France on the D-Day invasion. It has spread over the years to include an entire bookshelf full of books on the topic and a shelf full of DVDs and documentaries. My best friend from college once responded when asked what I would do if I could only do one thing for the rest of my life: "she
d read books on D-Day". My fascination with D-Day extended to an overall interest in World War II narratives and the first-hand accounts of men who, to quote Don Malarkey, were so brave as to be unbelievable. Babe Heffron was one of those men.

He was 19 years old when he answered the call to serve in 1942. He went to jump school and though he didn't jump into Normandy, he fought in Operation Market Garden and earned a bronze star at the Battle of the Bulge. He was an ordinary guy called in to do extraordinary things. HBO chose to focus on Babe's unit, Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne when they made their epic miniseries Band of Brothers (which I have probably seen 5-6 times). Babe is not featured prominently in the film. If you have not read the book or seen the miniseries before you probably wouldn't remember him. He was a replacement who joined after the Normandy campaign and quickly earned the respect of his fellow soldiers. The actor who portrays Babe, Robin Laing, does a fabulous job portraying the 22 year old in combat. One of his most memorable and emotional episodes is the Breaking Point, which depicts how Easy Company endured the horrific Battle of the Bulge. It boggles my mind how these men survived the conditions they did and were able to go on to live such meaningful lives. If you have not seen the miniseries, I highly recommend it. The excuse that "I'm not into war movies" does not hold up. Band of Brothers is a film (miniseries) that every American should see. It's not just a "war movie". The real men of Easy Company are featured prominently at the start of each episode. that is when you'll hear these men vehemently deny that they are heroes or celebrities. To quote Babe, "the real men, the real heroes are the fellows that are still buried over there and those that come home to be buried."

Knowing that, I was very reluctant to introduce myself to Babe. I was genuinely starstruck once I realized it was him and could not work up the courage to speak to him. I wondered if I should just leave him alone. I was 99% confident it was him, but just to be sure I stammered a weak "Mr. Heffron?" to which he turned to me and, in his wonderful South Philly accent, replied "yeah, that's me! I'm Babe!" I introduced myself and told him the story about how and why I became a teacher and what an honor it was to meet him. I only talked to him for about 5 minutes, but in those 5 minuets he told me about all the speaking engagements he does all over the country and how important it is to him to make sure people remember and understand the sacrifices that men and women in uniform make. He told me about how he tried to go to Iraq in 2008 (at the age of 85!) but was stuck in Kuwait 'cos of a sandstorm. He told me about how much he can't stand the liberal papers and people who do nothing but slam the United States. I think everyone at the gate was wondering "why is this girl bothering this poor old man?" Like I said, I was hesitant about bothering him because, despite the fact that he does many speaking tours and wears a jacket and cap that proudly display his service, he does not love being a celebrity. Like I said above, he doesn't believe he's a hero and believes very strongly that he is just a guy who did his job.

Now I'm not the kind of person who glorifies military service and thinks it's "cool" and that everyone who dons a uniform is a superheros or something. I think war is awful. To quote Babe's CO, Major Dick Winters, "wars do not make a man great, but they do bring out the greatness in good men." I think the veterans of WWII are men who led awe-inspiring lives and who this world owes a debt of gratitude to that can truly never be repaid.

As if my exchange with him at the gate wasn't enough, as he was exiting the plane he winked at me, handed me a folded up newspaper, and in his awesome South Philly accent says, "here ya go, I wrote ya something!"

There was a two page article in the Philadelphia newspaper about him and his buddy and fellow Easy Company veteran, Bill Guarnere. On the back page he wrote: Thank you for teaching American history! ~ Babe Heffron, Easy Company, 506th, 101st Airborne. "Band of Brothers". I was in awe as I read it. To think that this guy was thanking ME was mind boggling.

The article was all about Babe and Bill fighting for a monument to honors their former commander, Richard Winters, to be erected in Normandy. which would symbolize the leadership of all Americans on D-Day. The statue would include a statue of Winters leading from the front, as all good leaders, and the quote, "wars do not make men great, but they do bring out the greatness in good men." Nothing could sum up my feelings of the men of this generation any better.

I leave you with the last 7 minutes of the Band of Brothers miniseries. It includes a wonderful narrative by Damian Lewis, who portrayed Major Winters, of what all the men did after the war and interviews with the real men of Easy Company. If it doesn't bring a tear to your eye, I might be convinced you're dead inside.

The Story of Lima Company

One more day of regular class!! I'm so excited and antsy I can't even concentrate on the little grading and work I have to finish up. It has been an interesting couple of days. JC has been super busy with school (of course), but he called to tell me that he got a package I sent him. He said it made his day, which was obviously the whole point in sending it so that made me smile. He has a test tomorrow that I know he is nervous about so I wanted to make him smile. Speaking of studying, I emailed the professor of the religion class I will be taking this summer to tell him that I would be missing the first two class meetings and to ask for the syllabus and book list. He got back to me and after reading over the syllabus I am even more excited than ever! I'm sure my tune might change 6 weeks from now, but I am excited to be a student again and have something to do this summer 'cos I HATE doing nothing.

As for the title of my post. I got a comment today on a YouTube video I posted several years ago about the Marines of Lima Company. What is my relation to Lima Company, you ask? I'm an Army girlfriend, with no involvement to the Corps, right? WRONG!

It's quite a long story that starts my senior year of college. I was, at that point, not directly involved or tied to the military in any way shape or form. I was working on finishing up my history degree, which had an emphasis in military history, but aside from a deep admiration for our men and women in uniform, I had no connections whatsover. It was November 2004 and I remember seeing TV footage of Operation Phantom Fury (aka the 2nd battle of Fallujah). I remember being so moved seeing pictures of Marines and Soldiers who looked younger than me and at that moment I started searching for a program that would allow me to do more than just slap a magnet on my car to "Support Our Troops".

So I signed up for a program called Adopt-A-Platoon that would pair me with a deployed servicemember to support for the duration of his/her deployment. It took a couple months and even a phone call to verify that I was in fact, me, and was serious about the support I would provide. I was paired with a 19 year old Lance Corporal in March of '05 at the very start of his Reserve unit's 7 month deployment to Iraq. It was expected to be a rather uneventful deployment and for the first few months it was. I sent letters, emails and packages to my adopted Marine, who was quick to write me back and introduce himself. He told me to longer call him the formal name which the organization had provided me with and immediately picked up on my introductory letter where I informed him that while my name was Abigail, my closest friends and family called me "Abs". His first letter back to me read "Dear Abs" and I knew then that I had been paired with an exceptional young man who was not about to mistake my support as a dating service (like many unfortunately do). He was originally from Ghana, West Africa and his dad had been a U.N officer wounded on duty, which is how he ended up in the states. He joined the Corps right out of high school, but was pursuing a degree at Ohio State and just sounded like an all around exceptional young man. (My dad is still convinced he will end up being the Secretary of State one day!)

Anyway, his company's uneventful deployment sadly ended up being a nightmare. The emails and phone calls I received from him were difficult to read and hear, but he frequently told me how much talking to me helped as I'm sure they weren't things he could tell his family. I was out in Wyoming for much of his deployment and I think he loved hearing my stories about life on the range being chased by buffalo that were so far away from the hell he was enduring. His unit unfortunately ended up being the hardest hit unit to serve in Iraq (they lost 23 members, including 14 in a span of 3 days ). He and I developed a wonderful friendship and my mother and father would even write him sometimes throughout the deployment. Though I was not able to be there for his homecoming (which was an absolutely AMAZING event) because I was out in Wyoming, I did get to go meet him several months later. We kept in touch for several years after, but have unfortunately lost touch over the years.

I was so deeply moved by the trials of his company, and most especially, the way they were welcomed home that about a month after he returned home, that I put together this tribute video together using pictures he sent me while deployed and others from local websites of their homecoming. I get frequent comments and messages about the video, most often from family and friends of those who served, but often from the Marines themselves.



Every time I receive a message I always view the video myself. I know the stories and lives of these fallen Marines so well. Most of them were in my friend's platoon and he has told me a lot about them. Today I received a message that inspired me to check up on the company to see what they were doing and if they were deploying again, which I do every so often. Sure enough my old friend is deploying again, this time as a Corporal in charge of new Marines. He is apparently one of only eight Marines who went through the 2005 deployment that is still with the unit. Although I have not heard from him in several years, I sent him an email to offer my support yet again. I truly hope I hear back from him so that JC and I can support him and his Marines this summer. My life has changed so much since I last talked to him. I think about him often and wonder if he accomplished everything he planned on doing.

Anyway, I must finish making my final and figure out what on earth I should do on my last day of class tomorrow.

The Home Stretch

Well, I'm down to the final stretch in this marathon that is my first-year teaching. Last Thursday was the last day I saw all of my seniors as that Friday was unofficial senior cut day and this week is senior exam week (except none of the seniors have to take exams). I can't say that I will miss them at all. There are really very few redeeming things about teaching seniors. I'll teach them again because it's a job, but if I could afford to be picky I would never teach seniors again.

These last couple weeks since the SOL tests have been a weird combination of relaxation and unneeded stress. The lesson planning isn't stressful. I honestly so lesson-planned out and so sick of teaching 'new' content I can't even tell you. I've pretty much been winging it and making it up in the 10 minutes before I leave for school. I'm teaching current issues and showing lots of videos. They watched Hotel Rwanda and we had a Socratic Seminar about it, then watched a documentary about North Korea. I taught them about Tianamen Square and current issues in China today. We had a class discussion today about what the term terrorism means and what their goals are. It should be interesting stuff and it is all stuff I really want them to learn. The problem is they've checked out. As one of my brightest students even said to me today when asking if he could make up a quiz from last week during math class, "SOLs are over. We're not doing anything." The kids know it and it's hard to convince them otherwise. I can't force them to pay attention to what I'm teaching them right now. I'm not going to test them on it the last day of school and they know that.

While their behavior and outlook about these last days bothers me, I can't be too much of a hypocrite. After all, I did just confess I haven't put a terrible amount of thought into my lessons these last couple weeks either. Bottom line is, I'm ready to cross that finish line and be able to say I did it. I finished my first year teaching. Two more days of class and then one week of finals and workdays to go.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...