Dear Holly - RTTF Honoree

Photo courtesy of Carrington House, a charitable foundation

On Saturday September 8, 2018 I will take a ride with around 500 friends. We’ll be on every kind of bike imaginable and we will have ideals from all over the spectrum. On Saturday we will ride with one purpose – to honor and support US Navy Chief Petty Officer Holly Katke, HMC. We will ride for two heroes, Holly and her daughter Leia

We’ll gather at the Naval Base/Ventura County, register and have a little breakfast while we await a stirring 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony. We will meet our hero and a few White Heart Foundation alumni and dignitaries before we mount up and Ride to the Flags (RTTF) at Pepperdine University where there will be one 3’X5’ flag for each casualty of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 2,977 flags in total. We’ll see flags from a variety of nations sprinkled in among our American flags, a flag for each person’s nationality - 90 International flags. I won’t be able to say much as I walk from one end of the display to the other, I’ll only be able to offer a quiet prayer for the people and their families, for the casualties of war, for those still in harm’s way, and for the wounded like Holly and their support groups like Leia.

Then we will listen to music, visit sponsors of the event, knock back a few beverages, and plunk down some cash on raffle items we may or may not be able to strap to our bikes for the trip home.

Holly’s story:

Chief Petty Officer Holly Katke was an Independent Duty Hospital Corpsman and earned the title of the highest enlisted medical care provider in the Navy. She is also fluent in Arabic and as a female was frequently the only person local women would talk to in Iraq. Holly was serving with a Navy Seal team when the outfit came under fire. They were at fleet station when she took a sniper round to the head, one eighth of an inch from being killed in action.

The bullet stayed lodged in Holly’s brain for three months causing multiple strokes resulting in the loss of the use of her right arm, half of her vision, and much of the functionality of her right leg. Her memory is sketchy – she describes it as like ‘fifty first dates’. Holly has continued her education and achieved her Bachelorette degree and works to study environmental issues.

Through all of this, Holly is a single parent to Leia, her highest priority and Holly’s primary helper.

The funds raised by our ride will provide Holly with specialized rehab equipment and help with transportation for her and her daughter.

Five minute video on Holly: https://youtu.be/myyopWnRbXE?t=353

If you feel inclined to donate you can do so through the links below, my fundraising page or to White Heart directly. If you don’t feel so inclined, stop for a moment and pray for Holly, her daughter, and all of our wounded veterans. Thank you.

My fundraising page: https://donate.whiteheart.org/event/ride-to-the-flags-xi/e191755

Or White Heart Foundation at: http://www.whiteheart.org/

Dear Holly,

Thank you for your service and the sacrifice you’ve made for us as a country, for your fellow Seals and Sailors, and for freedom. I appreciate how you’ve battle back and continued to fight through your injuries in order to be there for your daughter and to be there for our world as a researcher.

I am honored to ride for you and make a bit of a difference to you as you live and love. I am humbled that I’ll ride with hundreds of others who feel the same way for you and other wounded veterans.

I appreciate the sacrifices that your daughter has made and continues to make for you and I love how she loves you. And if I may be so bold, I love how she taps out the beat.

And, I pray for continued healing and miracles for you and through you. I pray for your daughter so that she’ll have endurance, focus, and be a source of pride and fulfillment to you. In my heart, I know your daughter is a great source of strength to you, I pray she finds her way and achieves her dreams.

Keep the iron side up,

Jerry ‘Shakespeare’ White

Memorial Day Rumination

I am the son of parents who met while serving in the US Navy during the Korean War. Two of my uncles served in the Navy and one of those uncles, my Uncle Bill, had two sons who served; one in the Navy and the one in the US Air Force. None of them were injured or killed while in the service. Their holiday is more rightfully Veterans’ Day.

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who died while serving in the armed forces. The day was initiated in 1868 and was held on May 30th up to 1972 when the day of remembrance was moved to the last Monday in May. There will be parades, gatherings at memorials in parks and shopping malls all around, and some will visit the gravesites of the fallen where volunteers have placed American Flags at the gravesides.

I have not served our country in the armed services and I don’t know anyone personally who has given the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. I was in the last draft lottery that brought young men into the service to send them off to Viet Nam. I often say that I’m just as glad Uncle Sam didn’t invite me in for a trip to Southeast Asia. In fact, I repeated that sentiment to Eric just a few days ago when I ran into him during a walk in Crescenta Valley Park. Eric was our starting center on the ’71-’72 Glendale Community College team, the Vaqueros. Shortly after our game on the day our lottery numbers came out I remember hearing Eric’s exclamation from the front of the bus as he realized he was drafted. I was well above the top number to be called at 253.

While I make that statement from time to time it is not entirely true. My father was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Point Cruz somewhere near Korea the day I was born. Cindy and I had an opportunity because of an overly long port of call during a recent cruise to tour the USS Midway in San Diego. I was thrilled all the while I went from cabin to cabin, command centers and through the flight and hanger decks while getting just a feel for what my dad went through. We came home and I got the name of his ship from my mom to do some research on it and wrote my dad a letter about his ship, added some old photos, and talked about my experience on the Midway. In the letter I made a confession to him that until that time I hadn’t told anyone – I wish that I had enlisted in the service out of high school rather than flail about in college for the first couple of years.

Though I did not serve I nevertheless mourn the loss of young lads and lasses that I would have served with had I gone into service. I mourn those who are injured and killed in every conflict and act of terrorism. We memorialize the fallen – as a country, as communities, as families, and as individuals. We create space to remember them in some way with special to ourselves.

I lost one of my best of friends while in my twenties to a car accident with a drunk driver. I still don’t completely understand God’s reasoning for it but I’ve gotten over the bitterness of it thanks to the laying on of hands and the prayers of a very special group of junior high kids and their advisers. Since losing Doug I found myself at Bass Lake over an occasional Memorial Day weekend, a place he and I went a couple of times with his parents’ boat and skied like crazy. To memorialize my friend I’d walk down to the lake from my grandparents’ home and stroll along Ski Beach until I found someone willing to take me out for a memorial run. Ski people can be very accommodating. I’d ski the crap out that lake either until my new friends got tired of it or I wiped out in some spectacular fashion. Nowadays I have a Dr. Pepper and lift it to him in memory. You see? It’s the little ways we can remember those we’ve lost and it’s all fine and good as long as it keeps the warmth of their memories close to us without sending us into the cold of bitterness. Bitterness doesn’t do us nor anyone close to us any good. It took a small miracle for me to find that out for myself.

What does this have to do with Memorial Day 2017? Well, there are hundreds of thousands of people memorializing their fallen today, mourning their losses, and some have every right to be bitter. I pray they don’t fall to bitterness or if they have then some miracle takes place for each one and they find those that will comfort them.

All in all, remember our lost well, keep warm memories of them alive, and pray for peace.

jerry