Mt. Holly man plans to welcome troops in style
By Mischa Aaron Arnosky
Staff Writer
Philly.com
Posted Tuesday June 9,2009
Following a friend’s deployment to the Middle East last June to serve in the U.S. Army National Guard, Mount Holly resident John Hennessy realized the area didn’t have an organization to support the troops. Hennessy used his contacts as a real estate agent and as the Mount Holly Fire Department Commissioner to create one — and it’s set to celebrate the homecoming of several troops.
Hennessy’s organization, saluteburlcotroops.com, will hold a homecoming rally June 13 at 10 a.m. at the municipal lot behind the police station in Mount Holly, at 23 Washington St. He said he hopes the date will be “safe,” as the 3,000 or so troops arriving June 4 at Fort Dix will have a lot to do, and a lot on their minds. The troops hail from Burlington to Woodbury, he said.
“They have their seven to 10 days where they have their de-mobilization, where they see different groups like psychiatrists and dentists,” Hennessy said. “Over the next couple of months, they’re going to have information sent to them about their veteran status. They know about events like this, but some don’t hear a word. They have blinders on, and they’re focused on getting home.”
The event is something of a covert operation for Hennessy. If everything goes smoothly, about seven troops will be greeted by 60 members of the Warriors Motorcycle Veterans Team while they’re eating breakfast at a diner.
“From there, the troops will probably be escorted by the Mount Holly Police Department and the fire chief through Mount Holly, and will pull up at the municipal lot, where we’re going to have just about every fire department and police department in the county, and hopefully, hundreds of people,” Hennessy said.
Of the Warriors, Hennessy said, “They’re all veterans, and they’re very serious about honoring these guys [who are] coming home. I’ve met quite a few of them, and they don’t mess around. If anybody gets in their way … they’ll move them out of the way,” he said with a laugh.
Hennessy has planned other events for the troops. Last October, he organized a holiday card drive for troops overseas. Over 200 hand-written cards were sent to 125 troops. And some of those cards were written by parents whose children had died in the war — heavy stuff, he said. And June 1 and 2, he worked with the Yellow Ribbon Club out of Evesham, which honors individual troops from the area as they come home for a leave of absence.
The June 13 rally has been months in the making, and is difficult to plan. Hennessy’s said his phone has been ringing for weeks, as he’s been in talks with state and local officials in an effort to have several speakers, and he plans to meet up with the families of the seven troops a couple days prior to the diner outing.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to get hundred of people together at one location on a Saturday, which is probably going to be a nice day — it’s difficult, but the people hear about what the cause is and that motivates a lot of people,” he said.
The troops that are involved likely know about the surprise at the diner, as it’s posted on the Web site, but they likely don’t know how elaborate it is.
“I don’t think they realize the magnitude of it,” Hennessy said. “I can track who’s going to our Web site, and I see the IP addresses over in certain areas in Iraq, so I know they’ve been checking it out. So they probably have a good idea.”
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