Overton Brooks Veteran’s Sock Drive

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Nicholas Bush
  • 2nd Medical Support Squadron
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  For patients at the local Overton Brooks VA Hospital, some veterans were unable to make it home for the holiday seasons, whether it was due to certain illnesses or even inabilities to travel.

Recently, members of the 2nd Medical Support Squadron and I took on the worthwhile effort of ensuring the veterans were greeted with warm smiles and gifts. During the visit, which occurred in early December, more than 20 veterans were given heartfelt holiday wishes, gift bags and personalized cards.

A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to create and run my own event as part of the 2nd MDSS' Airman Leadership Project, which is an initiative designed to develop Airman leadership skills. The leadership project is a turned-based project, in which each Airman in our squadron is tasked with creating an event. I was also able to task my own volunteers, manage dates in which we'd accomplish certain assignments, and more. I was able to sit with my flight chief to collaborate on ideas on what we could do for the month of December. After a while, the idea of a Veteran's Sock Drive was created. The idea was to collect socks to take to the Veterans for the holidays to keep them warm during the cold holiday weather.

The 2nd Medical Group collected well over 100 pairs of socks and cards for the veterans. Each pair of socks was wrapped into individual gift bags along with a personally signed holiday card by members of the 2nd MDG. Each card was also signed wishing the veterans a Merry Christmas and thanking them for their past contributions.

Upon arriving at the VA Hospital with our gifts, we were met by Reginald Hardy, Chief of Voluntary Service at the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center, who said, "It's nice when individuals do things like this for our veterans, but it really hits home when it comes from our soldiers."

During our visit, we all had the opportunity to personally walk into a veteran's room and hand them a gift while wishing them Happy Holidays and thanking them for their service. Their appreciation was expressed greatly with genuine gratitude, handshakes and even a few hugs. At the end of our day, we had eventually put a lot of smiles on our heroes' faces and they did the same for ours.

No matter how small of a contribution you can make, even if it's no more than just stopping a veteran to say "Thank you for your service", it makes serving our country worthwhile.