{"id":24385,"date":"2023-08-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=24385"},"modified":"2023-08-25T06:41:26","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T06:41:26","slug":"fort-cavazos-volunteers-support-soldier-mobilizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=24385","title":{"rendered":"Fort Cavazos volunteers support Soldier mobilizations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Jesse Thigpen, a volunteer with American Red Cross, offers a resource card to a mobilizing Soldier Aug. 8 at Larkin Terminal at Robert Gray Army Airfield. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Justin Hardin, Mobilization Support Brigade)
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FORT CAVAZOS, Texas \u2014 <\/strong>Volunteers from the American Red Cross, Fort Cavazos Garrison Chaplain\u2019s Office and United Service Organizations regularly greet and bid farewell to service members arriving to or leaving Fort Cavazos.<\/p>\n

The chance to give back to service members is an opportunity most volunteers do not pass up.<\/p>\n

Jessee Thigpen, a retired Army helicopter mechanic, waited only three months before he decided to actively volunteer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working all my life and I just can\u2019t sit around and not do anything,\u201d Thigpen shared. \u201cI\u2019ve always heard about the Red Cross cause obviously being in the military. So, I thought I\u2019m going to do the Red Cross, the USO or something and give back, that\u2019s what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Soldiers mobilizing out of Larkin Terminal at Robert Gray Army Airfield at Fort Cavazos, Thigpen and the Red Cross offer hot coffee, tea and an assortment of books, at no cost to the Soldier.<\/p>\n

Volunteers with the chaplain\u2019s office offer support in the form of religious material and will even offer to have congregations pray for mobilized Soldiers.<\/p>\n

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\n Bonnie Olson, a volunteer with the Fort Cavazos Garrison Chaplain\u2019s Office, offers prayer cards to Soldiers from the 40th Infantry Division before they depart Larkin Terminal at Robert Gray Army Airfield at Fort Cavazos. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Justin Hardin, Mobilization Support Brigade)
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Bonnie Olsen, a volunteer with the Fort Cavazos Garrison Chaplain\u2019s Office, holds up a yellow index card and explains the idea of the prayer card to a room packed with mobilizing units. The idea is to have Soldiers fill out the card with their demographics and religious preferences, or nonreligious preferences, and someone will pray for that Soldier\u2019s safe return as well as the safety and peace of the Soldier\u2019s family stateside.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody did this for my kids when they went out,\u201d Olsen expressed, \u201cthey did three tours in Iraq and three tours in Afghanistan, and this is just a way of giving back and I love what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The volunteers at Larkin terminal also provide support in other areas. Elder Michael Bosley, also a volunteer with the Fort Cavazos Garrison Chaplain\u2019s Office, volunteers during arriving and departing flights, but he also helps with other needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also help them with community connections,\u201d Bosley explained, \u201cthey serve free meals there and they teach classes. When the interest is there, we teach classes as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several values connect these volunteers to each other as well as to the mobilizing Soldier, but the one value that is apparent is selfless service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went through this myself,\u201d Thigpen said. \u201cI\u2019ve been overseas several times with the military, and I\u2019ve seen things happen to Soldiers, not always bad things but some things could be improved. So, I thought why don\u2019t I try and help out. So that\u2019s what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Elder Michael Bosley, a volunteer with the Fort Cavazos Garrison Chaplain\u2019s Office, explains the prayer card to Soldiers from the 373rd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion before they depart Fort Cavazos. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Justin Hardin, Mobilization Support Brigade)
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There are plenty of volunteer opportunities, according to the Army Volunteer Corps, located at Fort Cavazos on the second floor of the Shoemaker Center.<\/p>\n

Thigpen, Olsen and Bosley have a combined 27 years of volunteer service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on an 18-month commitment here to serve the Soldiers at Fort Cavazos,\u201d Bosley shared, \u201cand help the commanders and chaplains and also meet with our members in the area and assist them in whatever capacity that we can in a religious nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

For information on volunteer opportunities at Fort Cavazos, contact the Army Volunteer Corps at 254-287-8657.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse Thigpen, a volunteer with American Red Cross, offers a resource card to a mobilizing Soldier Aug. 8 at Larkin Terminal at Robert Gray Army Airfield. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Justin Hardin, Mobilization Support Brigade) (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL FORT CAVAZOS, Texas \u2014 Volunteers from the American Red Cross, Fort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24387,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24385"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24391,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385\/revisions\/24391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}