April 6, 2003
The Source Newspaper - A Personal ‘Thank You’
Most of the thank yous that Christine Delvecchio receives are in the form of letters, E-mails or even photographs. But on March 28, the gratitude came in the form of a visit from United States Air Force Sgt. Jesse English, one of the first of thousands of military personnel who have received a special care package.
Delvecchio is not only the president of All American Screen Printing in Sterling Heights, but heads up the All American Patriots, a non-profit group that has sent out thousands of care packages to troops deployed to the Middle East since Sept. 11. And English, who has spent two assignments totaling eight months in Afghanistan, said the troops are more thankful for the care packages than Delvecchio even realizes.
“In some instances it was almost like Christmas time” he said, of the arrival of packages and T-shirts, which say “For those about to rock, we salute you,” and depict symbols for the different branches of the military. “Some people didn’t believe it. They said ‘What’s the catch?’“ Included in the care packages are a T-shirt, soldier’s bookmark and a thank-you letter from a local child. English, 31 said he responded to the letter to let the children know what they had written was significant, telling them, “you encourage me a lot to continue.”
They weren’t just mailing out a random letter,” he said. “They were sending it to someone who gives a damn.” English is a special tactics weather man for the Air Force. His intensive training included four years of college-level meteorology school condensed into one year, in addition to military free fall, combat, and water survival schooling. English is often the first to arrive at a site of a military occupation. He parachutes in, often assigned to a troop of Army Green Berets because they don’t have weather-trained troops. He can then observe and forecast weather in the area, briefing commanders on things like the best way to bring planes in depending on cloud ceiling and visibility.
He said his brother was also Air Force and led him to the work. Living in Alaska at the time, English sold everything he could and traveled far just for the opportunity. “The fact that I got to work with Special Forces is what drew me to it,” he said. He said his military work has been exciting. He has traveled to many foreign countries, many of which he landed in after hopping out of an airplane. When people ask why he would want to jump out of a perfectly good plane, he has a quick answer for them – “To find out if we have perfectly good parachutes.”
Special Forces work in four month rotations. English is currently biding his time at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township, waiting to see if he will be deployed to Iraq. On one hand, he said he would be happy to start his work toward becoming a U.S. marshal. On the other, he said he wouldn’t mind being overseas as part of the current fight. In his occupation, if they move into new areas and don’t have a weatherman, he could get a call. “You have to go where you are needed and that could change in a day,” he said.
The thank yous from the more than 11,000 troops who have received packages keep pouring into Delvecchio’s office. The photos are in a small gallery in the business’ front office. Small labels adorn their frames, giving an infantry number, location, soldier’s name or plane type. One photo depicts a troop holding a torn piece of cardboard with the Magic Marker-ed words “Thank you Christine.”
A combat veteran, English was grateful for Delvecchio’s “thank you,” which he said was obviously heartfelt. “You can’t hear it enough, people’s thanks,” he said. “It’s the simple things that mean the most.” During English’s visit, the business was a flurry of activity. A local Boy Scout troop was making T-shirts and touring the business. Patriotic T-shirts were being sold to raise money for the Patriots and volunteers were coming and going.
Caroline Dipzinski, a Sterling Heights resident, had just begun volunteering for the Patriots that day. “I think it’s great,” she said. “It’s a very, very good thing. We are all Patriotic.” Dipzinski, who got an autograph on a hat from English, has two sons-in-law in Iraq. Neither of her daughters has heard from them since they were deployed. James Parker is a two-star Army general and Navy Cmdr. Greg Fenton is on the U.S.S. Roosevelt. Her son fought in the Gulf War. “We pray a lot now and keep our eyes glued to the news,” she said.
Representatives of the Korean War Veterans Chapter 256 also showed up to welcome English and pledge support to Delvecchio. “It’s good,” said Richard Charbonneau, of the operation. “We’re going to back her up all we can supporting the troops in Iraq.” Both Charbonneau and Jay Bradmon said they would have liked to receive the same packages while they were fighting. “It would be like Christmas,” Bradmon said. “A lot of GIs when we were fighting would have loved something like that,” Charbonneau said.
Delvecchio estimates that she works 60-70 hours a week, with most of her time going to the Patriots. Jan Howell, All American’s business manager has picked up a lot of slack. Delvecchio still has a list of 62,000 servicemen and women to whom she could send packages. When she gets to a point where she asks herself why she is doing what she is doing, halting her businesses financial growth and even using some of her business income to pay for the care packages, she looks at the spiritual payment it has given her. She hopes to teach her twin daughters, 10 and 13-year-old son to be good people.
She also said she sometimes compares the feeling of getting a new, imported car to the feeling of helping other people and one falls short. “What it’s done for me morally, and the feeling of loving people and caring for people is more satisfying for me than any new step in my business,” she said.
