Let’s talk about Fort Knox

I want to tell you more about yesterday at Fort Knox.  We are guessing that we handed out 300-350 quilts and left the 250-300.  Totaling 600 quilts.  The remaining 350 quilts will go to Fort Campbell.   The quilts that we didn’t hand out were left for the Chaplin or Melisa with the WTB ( Warrior Transition Battalion) to hand out to the Soldiers that may have been in the hospital, other appointments or gone from the base for any other reason.   They will continue to hand them out to any new soldiers that come until they are gone.  When they are gone they will notify us and we will do our best to send them more.

  I was not uncommon for a soldier to be more worried that a buddy that was gone wasn’t going to get a quilt than if he got one.  These men and women are loyal to each other.  Here are a couple more pictures, I know you want to see what’s happening and not read so much!

We were all impressed with the new facility.  They have all of the offices of all of the different programs set up very conveniently for the soldiers to use.  Everything from help dealing with the medical end of things to help to learn how to use the skills they have been taught in the service to get jobs in their civilian lives. 

We just happened to be at the base when a change of command was taking place in the WTB.  Outgoing was Commander, 1LT Christopher J. McGhee to Incoming Commander, 1LT Thomas K Quick.  We took a break from handing out quilts to join the Soldiers in observing the ceremony. 

Here are some pictures of the ceremony and inside the building.

 

One of the Soldiers gave Jenny this cross that he had made as a “Thank You”.  He is teaching a class to his fellow Soldiers on how to use a scroll saw.  All of the Soldiers in the WTB have to go to school or have a job.  The jobs are federal jobs as they can not do a paying job because they are still full time soldiers.

The Battalion Commander is LTC Dwight G Lewis.  He talked to us for quite a while and shared a story about a quilt that he has.  He has taken it to 25 different countries with him, in his pack instead of a sleeping bag, as he was stationed in different places.  He still has that quilt.  He said it’s probably not worth anything to anyone else but it is something he will always have.  He now has a new quilt. 

Thanks for joining us again today.  We had a wonderful free day with some shopping – OK lots of shopping and we enjoyed the  78 degrees and sunshine.  I will tell you about it tomorrow! 

Destination Fort Knox

We were up early and back on the bus.  We were all excited to be on the way for one of our destinations.  After a 3 hour trip we were met by Melissa at the gate and escorted to the new Warrior Transition Battalion (WTB) building. 


The building is new since we were there last and is set up to be very convenient for all of the different programs that are available for the soldiers.  The quilts were unloaded and displayed so each soldier could look threw them and pick out there own quilt.  I will put in lots of pictures so enjoy!!!


The soldiers were impressed with all the quilts.  Some commented that they hadn’t had a quilt since there grandma made one.  They wanted to know how long it took to make a quilt and what they had to do to get one.  They were told they had already done so much more than needed.

Lots more pictures!

And more-


As the soldiers read the labels they often asked who the people were and were pleased if they could meet one of the people that made their quilt.  A soldier with 30 years in the service made the comment that he had never had anything this nice happen for the soldiers before.  As you can tell from the pictures there might have been a few laughs shared and lots of “Thanks” were passed back and forth.  Enjoy a few more pictures -


I will post more tomorrow.  I hope you have enjoyed sharing in our day through the pictures.  It has been an honor to represent the quilters that couldn’t make the trip and the people that have helped us threw helping to supply the materials for the quilts.  These men and women are some of the best we have – let’s remember them and what they have sacrificed for us!!!