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A hero's welcome: Donation forms
Vail Mountaineer article: Thursday, March 5, 2009
by Randy Wyrick, Mountaineer Staff Writer

Wounded Warriors event coordinator Cheryl Jensen welcomes Lt. Col. Gregory Gadson to the valley. Gadsom is one of 27 military veterans and their families in town this week for a Wounded Warriors event in Vail. The Wounded Warriors program provides trips and adventures for disabled military veterans and their famlies. (Jennifer Ellis photo)

Local students line up to greet disabled Iraz/Afghanistan vets.

They wanted heroes, and that's what they got.

More than 100 fourth and fifth graders from Gypsum Elementary School were singing the "Star Spangled Banner" as 27 disabled military veterans and their families made their way through the Eagle County Regional Airport terminal.

Music teacher Janie Bionaz started the kids with the "Star Spangled Banner," then rolled straight into "What Can You Say to a Hero?"

There wasn't a dry eye in the house, and if there were they were lying eyes. Tourists stopped and smiled and watched.

"Are you kids glad to be here?" they were asked. "YES!" shouted the students.

"Why are you here?" came the followup question. "We want to meet the heroes!" they shouted.

As the soldiers make their way through the terminal, you're struck by how young they are, a reminder that wars are fought by young people. It couldn't have been that long ago that they wre in the fifth grade.

"Hopefully these wars will end pretty soon and they won't have to keep inviting new people," said Lt. Col. Gregory Gadson, one of the veterans in town for the week.

This is Cheryl Jensen's sixth year to coordinate Wounded Warriors events in Vail. Like always and like everyone else, she choked up when they came in, past the kids singing.

One woman, arriving for a ski vacation, knew the answer but just had to ask, "do they do this all the time?" she asked smiling. "Well ma'am, we love it when company comes, but no they don't meet every plane. Just special planes." "Planes that bring heroes!" one fifth grader added enthusiastically.