I'm pretty lucky to be doing what I'm doing...putting together six issues of Army Engineer magazine each year, plus managing www.armyengineer.com. Sometimes, when I get a bit overloaded, something really great happens that makes what I do so personally satisfying.
About a year ago I placed a few photos of 297th Combat Engineer Battalion veterans of the Second World War on the magazine's front cover. I also put together a two-page spread photo essay inside the magazine. The original photographs were sent to me by the daughter of one of the unit's veterans, Mari Ippolito. Well, today Mari sent me a photo scan of that cover, which had been personally signed by veterans at their reunion last week. She has told me many times how much those guys appreciated what we did to recognize them in the magazine, and I was of course willing to do all I could to thank them for their dedicated service.
These veterans are amazing. No matter their age or medical condition, they always seem to find a way to get together. More importantly, they care for each other like "family". And when people like Mari help keep things moving year after year, that family grows in ways too numerous to mention. She's not the only person doing this. In the May-June issue of Army Engineer there is a feature story about the special bonds of engineer service. Part of that story was written by Mari. I'm going to soon post that article on the AEA's website, so if you are not a magazine subscriber, you can read it online. Probably sometime next week, so look in the veterans section of the site to read it.
Like I said, this is pretty neat stuff we're all involved in. So, when you get overloaded like I do at times hearing about whether or not Paris Hilton escaped from jail again, go find an engineer veteran and have them tell you a few war stories.
