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The Victoria College. Full-time salaried position with benefits available...
DISTRICT "Champions for Community Wellness" has the following positions...
After a moment, the residents who lined the streets around Froggie’s Bait Dock to greet the troops started screaming and applauding with tears in their eyes.
“One Army captain said when he got off the bus he felt like a rock star,” Carl Bludau, co-chairman of the event said.
Is patriotism still alive?
“Hell, yeah,” Bludau from Victoria said.
Last year’s Warrior’s Weekend brought 107 soldiers to Port O’Connor for an all-day fishing event. This year, the event coordinators expect at least 125 soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Fort Hood and Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
Bludau estimates 2,000 residents will show up to honor the soldiers.
“It’s going to be enormous this year,” he said. “It’ll be at least three times as large as last year.”
The chairman established the event last year as a way to honor those serving our country and to give the wounded soldiers a break from the hospital.
“These women and men are some of the greatest people we ever met,” Bludau said. “It’s our love and respect of our military, especially our wounded, that motivates Warrior’s Weekend.”
Apache and Black Hawk helicopters will land at the Port O’Connor Community Center for display and around 5:30 p.m., the 82nd Airborne Division’s free-fall team will jump out of a Black Hawk for a sky dive show, Bludau said excitedly about this year’s additions.
Bludau and co-chairmen Ron Kocian from Victoria and Bobby Edwards of Refugio raised enough money this year to pay $80,000 in expenses to give the soldiers a family fishing retreat. What’s left over will go toward purchasing a three-seat golf cart to transport soldiers from their barracks to the activity center at Brooke Army Medical, Bludau said.
Fishing guides are volunteering their time and residents have donated 140 boats. Army recruiting will bring a rock-climbing wall.
Bludau, who served in the 82nd Airborne in the Vietnam War and spent six months at Brooke Army Medical in 1969 with shoulder and knee injuries, encourages residents to take the chance to meet and honor the country’s soldiers in person.
“Honor these wounded. Do something besides put a magnetic ribbon on the back of your vehicle,” he said. “This is the real meaning of support our troops.
Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com.
If You Go
Warrior’s Weekend in Port O’Connor
9:30 a.m. Greet soldiers at Froggie’s Bait Dock on Byers Drive
2 to 4 p.m. Weigh-in at Froggie’s
4 to 8 p.m. Opening ceremony and celebration at Port O’Connor Community Center
For more information, visit www.warriorsweekend.org.