Empty barracks welcome returning soldiers, VFW fills gap
FORT CARSON, Colo (KRDO) - There's never a more patriotic scene than that at Fort Carson's Special Events Center: returning soldiers wearing fatigues, marching into awaiting families squealing with delight, bouncing babies meeting dad for the first time. It's a much-deserved end to the soldiers' time overseas.
But, after the welcome home ceremony comes, the single soldiers-- those who live in the barracks-- often return to a shell of a room. No bed linens await. It will take weeks for their household items to be returned from storage from when the soldiers were deployed.
"For a single soldier that often means coming home, grabbing your gear, getting taken to the barracks, getting a barracks key, settling in for the night. A lot of times there's nothing in your room besides what you carried home," said Mindy King, who is currently the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 101 Adjutant in Colorado Springs. "Coming home as a single soldier can be sad -- it can be a drag sometimes."
A battalion commander of the 984th Military Police contacted the District 5 VFW, asking that the VFW help provide those single returning soldiers with pillows, sheets, and comforters: basic creature comforts for the soldiers who've volunteered to serve our nation.
The VFW gladly accepted the mission.
On a whirlwind shopping trip, VFW volunteer leaders had just enough funds to cover exactly what was requested: 38 bed linens for the single soldiers, and 62 snack bags for all returning with the battalion.
"They don't get issued linens, they don't get issued pillows, they don't get issued the things that we've been asked to provide," said Travis Baker, VFW District 5 Commander.
"It might sound simple, but when you don't have sheets to sleep on for several weeks because your items are in household goods, that's a big thing!" echoed King.
Current VFW members belonging to District 5, its eight posts in the Pikes Peak Region, and the VFW Warriors biker group all donated the funds for this particular ask.
The bed sheets were washed and put on the beds in advance of the soldiers' arrival.
If you'd like to donate to the VFW in its ongoing mission to support soldiers, contact any one of the area locations:
