As families across Alabama make plans for Thanksgiving, some Fort Rucker families will have an empty seat at the table. First Lady Melania Trump asked Americans to keep those families in mind during a Thursday visit to the Wiregrass post with Second Lady Usha Vance.
The two spoke to soldiers and their families a day after Veterans Day. With Thanksgiving a few weeks away, Trump talked about how much families take on while a loved one is deployed and how much they miss having that person home, even on an ordinary day.
“I know each of you has those quiet moments when you are on your own and you wish your loved one was home to help with homework, to be there to celebrate that winning touchdown, the birthdays and of course do bedtime,” Trump said.
Vance, who spoke before introducing Trump, said her husband JD’s Marine Corps service gave her a sense of what military life asks of spouses and children. She also talked about how families build close-knit communities wherever they’re stationed.
“Wherever your country sends you, you find a way to make it home,” Vance said. “I’m so grateful to all of you for welcoming us into your home.”
Vance pointed to the post’s schools as one way military communities invest in children. She said she and Trump planned to stop at Fort Rucker’s elementary school later that day to see the work teachers are doing. She said more than 30,000 children nationwide took part in her second annual Summer Reading Challenge and logged 360,000 books. She said she believed some of those children were from Fort Rucker.
Last November, Trump and Vance visited military families at Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina.
This year, at the home of Army Aviation, Trump drew attention to the families who support Fort Rucker’s pilots.
“But behind the strength of those pilots who rise into the skies is the work of your loved ones who remain on the ground,” Trump said.
Before she left the podium, Trump pictured a Thanksgiving many Americans would recognize, with loved ones gathered for a meal and perhaps a football game on TV. She asked them to take a moment to think about families spending the holiday apart.
“Take a moment to think of America’s service people and the families with an open seat at their Thanksgiving table,” Trump said.
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
