The “Greeters” In Support of Our Troops

            Joan Gaudet’s back yard in Bradley, Maine, was full of bird feeders brimming over with seed.  The retired Certified Nursing Assistant, whose husband, Richard, a full time Maine Air National Guardsman, who had passed away several years earlier, meticulously cared for the wild birds.  Joan, a mother of eight and grandmother of three, was proud of her well kept yard and stayed busy tending to it.  That would all change in October of 2003.
           Joan ran into an acquaintance that said she was going to the Bangor Airport to greet some soldiers returning from Iraq.  The woman invited her along.  Joan was so moved by the reaction of the troops being greeted, “well that was it,” she said, as excited by the memory today, as she was seven years ago.  Since that October 2003 day, she has gone to greet service members deploying or returning each and every time they passed through Bangor, Maine.
            Joan, and her fellow “Greeters”, have gone back and forth to the airport, as many as nine times in one day.  It doesn’t matter if it’s 3:00p.m. or 3:00a.m., she and the other two “Dedicated Greeters” will be there to thank the troops for their service, and wish them well.  The other two dedicated individuals are Bill Knight (89), and Jerry Mundy (76).

              Bill is a WW II veteran, having served in the Army Air Corps in North Africa, but retired from the U.S. Navy after 32 years of combined service.  He knows firsthand what a thank you means to a soldier.  The homecoming for troops from Vietnam was a disgrace, and Bill made the promise to never let that happen again.  His commitment is so strong that on the day he found out that he had cancer, he was the first one to arrive at the airport.
           The last die-hard “Greeter” is Jerry Mundy, an ex-Marine, who served during the Korean War, but never saw any action. He can often be found in his pick-up truck with his dog, Mr. Flannigan, parked at the Bangor Airport waiting for the troop’s airplane to land.
            No one could have predicted that they would still be greeting service members seven years after they began.  “I’m going to keep doing this until the wars are over or I can no longer do it,” Joan insisted.  “You can’t give up, because you feel like you’re letting the troops down.”  Joan (77) suffers from a variety of bone degenerative aliments and the pain associated with it, and uses a cane or walker most of the time.  But when greeting the soldiers, she stands there without the appliances because, “you can’t get them into the airport.”
              These dedicated people have greeted over one million troops in the past seven years.  Many other people will join the three from time-to-time, but they alone are always there.  Among other notable greeters at the Bangor International Airport have been former Presidents’ George W. Bush and Clinton. Bangor Airport has seen so many troops pass through, because it is the east most point in the United States and has runways two miles long, therefore they can handle the largest aircraft.
           Joan, and her fellow “Greeters”, offer the troops a cell phone to call their friends and families.  They have 40 mobile phones with them, courtesy of Verizon.  Joan pushes those who are passing through to take advantage of the free phone, no matter what time it is; “because your mom will want to know,” she said.   The greeters presence is more than a phone call or wave, often the departing troops are comforted talking to the two vets who have already made a like journey.  Yet, Joan, the mother and grandmother she is, insist that the soldiers make a last call to a loved one before departing.
           Aron Gaudet, Joan’s son, a television news producer in Grand Rapids Michigan, was explaining to his girlfriend, Gita Pullapilly, a reporter at the same station (now his wife) what his mother was doing day after day.  They decided to produce a documentary film about the “Greeters”.  It took three years to do so, but the film, “The Way We Get By” has won awards as best documentary at 17 different film festivals.  It was shown on Veterans Day, 2009 on PBS, one of only eight or nine independent documentaries to air on that station annually.
            One woman who saw the film, Joanne Lyle, emailed the “Greeters” and explained that her son would be passing through the Bangor Airport on his way to Iraq.  She asked them to look for her son and give him a hug from his mom.  They located the soldier and at Joan’s insistence the young man called his mom, he told her how great the “Greeters” were and said another good-bye.  Joan received a second email from Joanne, thanking her for making her son call that day; because one month after he departed he was killed in action.  It was the last time she heard his voice, and in a small way it provided Joanne a bit of closure.
           Joan has said hi and good-bye to other peoples children and grandchildren, but she has also bid farewell to her own granddaughter, Captain Amy Johnston, an Army National Guard helicopter pilot and grandson, Sergeant Troy Johnston, a flight service NCO in the same unit.  Joan also welcomed them back a year later; and faces the prospect of bidding them farewell again in 2011.
            Not all soldiers come home through Bangor, especially if they have been wounded.  This became clear when she was touring with the film in Washington, DC.  While at a showing of the documentary at Walter Reed Hospital, a soldier said “hi” to Joan and reminded her that she had seen him off several months prior.  The man had lost both legs to a roadside bomb.  Joan welcomed him home.  Another soldier explained to her that since he returned he has undergone seven operations and still faces up to 14 more.
           “It was heartbreaking what these soldiers endure, it just breaks my heart.  You don’t have to support the war, but these troops and their families need our support,” Joan said.  She also said, “If you can find anything in your town to volunteer at to help other people, do it because volunteers are needed so badly.”  Simply volunteering won’t make you rich or famous, but will make you a hero to those you help.
           As they walked out of the Pines Village Retirement Communities of Valparaiso, Celebration Breakfast in honor of Older American’s Month, Aron noted, the last time he was at his mother’s house he saw all the bird feeders in the back yard, but no wild birds.  He investigated and found the feeders were empty and the yard was a bit shabby.  “I guess she found something more important to do,” he said.