Sandy Run gives thanks to members of 111th
By Joe Barron |
PUBLISHED: November 20, 2007 at 10:00 p.m. | UPDATED: September 24, 2021 at 4:23 a.m.
The country club, located on Walnut Lane in Oreland, extended an invitation to the fighter wing for a complimentary round of golf, and despite the morning rain and chill, about 20 guardsmen turned out to accept.
"It's the chance to just get away from it all," munitions expert Joe Payne said as he stood on the fairway. "Listen how quiet it is out here."
The invitation went out in September, just as some members of the fighter wing were returning home from Iraq, but between reacclimating to their stateside jobs and becoming reacquainted with their families, their schedules did not permit them to get together until mid-November.
"It's Thanksgiving week," said Mike Creeden, Sandy Run's general manager. "The way I look at it is, we're thanking them for what they do for us."
As a bonus, the country club gave each guardsman a birdie on three holes that are currently under reconstruction and are unplayable.
"We're starting them off at three under par," Creeden said.
The guardsmen were thankful, too, and to show their gratitude, they presented the country club with a flag that had flown in an A-10 Thunderbolt fighter plane.
"It makes it a lot easier for us to serve the state and the country," said Col. Tony Carrelli, an A-10 pilot who has flown in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. "We appreciate getting a welcome from the community."
Their morale could use some lifting.
The guardsmen's spirits have been deflated since the federal government decided to pull the A-10s out of the Willow Grove Naval Air Station, said Steve Johnston, a munitions expert from Quakertown.
"Where are we supposed to go when the planes leave?" he said.
For the moment, though, they enjoyed being in one another's company for some purpose other than national defense.
The cold and the dampness could not scare them off the links, and besides, hot coffee, lunch and a steaming sauna were waiting for them inside when they finished.
Joe Barron