Honor, Hope & Healing
Local garden club honors Gold Star Families
The three flags flying over the American eagle sculpture stationed at Veterans Park waved silently in the breeze as retired U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret Bob Crandall and other local veterans of war gathered with family, supporters and garden club members.
They showed up on the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend to honor the servicemen and women who paid the ultimate price in defending their country. It was a perfect morning for the Gold Star Memorial Marker dedication.
“This is something new for Billings,” said Joyce Hendricks, who served six years in the U.S. Air Force, and works with the local Thumb-R-Green Garden Club. “The national garden club started this to honor Gold Star families. Northern communities in Montana have these markers already. Our club talked about it and eventually undertook the fundraising for a Gold Star Memorial Marker. The (marker) cost is $2,700.”
Fundraising over the past couple of years has gone very well, Joyce said. “People, especially veterans, are very generous,” she said. “The Big Sky Iris Club, local businesses and individuals have been a huge help, as well. The Billings community really did respond, and the city of Billings Parks Department has been good support.”
Thumb-R-Green vice president Tori Francis welcomed everyone to the dedication, saying, “Joyce and Ron (Joyce’s husband) are here Saturday mornings tending this garden. They make it their personal passion.”
Red roses mingle with clusters of red and white geraniums, filling the garden with color and life. Joyce pointed out that “we even have blue ones in the mix.” The vibrant sanctuary stands as a living patriotic tribute to military families.
“It’s surprising how many families have suffered loss from World War II through today,” she said. “People, in general, don’t talk about it.”
At the ceremony, however, U.S. Army Major Charles Noland, commander of Worden’s Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 7407, highlighted the profound sacrifices of Gold Star families as he delivered a stirring tribute.
“Since 1936, America has 1.7 million Gold Star families, Montana has 3,330, and Yellowstone County has 198. We owe a debt we can never repay to those service members who gave their lives in defense of our country and the cause of freedom,” the commander said. “We also owe a great debt to those families who have lost a service member to these noble causes.”
The name Gold Star reflects a more modern reference to the service flag or service banner that families post in their yards or in their windows. It is recognized as an American military tradition that started during the First World War.
“The Gold Star moms are very dear to our heart,” says Boots Mordeaux, who served eight years in the Army Reserve and is a member of VFW Post 7407 Auxiliary. Her husband, Corry, who dressed for the day in the vibrant red VFW-branded shirt, as are other Post colleagues, served 27 years in the Army.
“We have a friend in Colorado who lost her son,” Boots said. “He was a navigator on an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) plane.”
After the Presentation of Colors by members of VFW Post 7407 and American Legion Post 117, Boots delivered a heartfelt invocation. “We pray for Gold Star families and moms, and all who served and are serving,” she said.
Billings Deputy Mayor and former Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Boyett posed a familiar question: “Are there any vets in the house?” He went on to say that “freedom is never free. We honor Gold Star families and we honor the heroes you gave to our country.”
Mike served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era, living in the Minute Man silos at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. He encountered some harrowing events during his time in underground site, but said that life is good today.
“The fact that we’re getting together with nice people on a beautiful day, I enjoy this, I really do,” he said.
Bob Crandall, the seasoned Vietnam veteran and Special Forces Green Beret, sat in his wheelchair, flanked by several other veterans. He had wheeled himself from his residence blocks away to attend the dedication.
Wearing a Warrior Wishes of Montana shirt and cap, his eyes glistened as he shared the heaviness that weighs on his heart and why this day was important.
“I come from an Army brat,” Bob said. “I was always around the military. I enlisted right out of high school when my dad was in Vietnam. I did two tours.” He paused for a moment, then said, “As a teen, I really didn’t know what I was getting into.”
During Bob’s second tour overseas, he was injured playing football. “I didn’t get this injury in combat,” he said.
The worst injury Bob deals with now is the guilt he still carries. “It has stayed with me,” he said. “It’s related to the two teammates I lost near a mountain. I was with them when they were killed, so I’ve had families who lost their husband and their brother from my team.”
In the last 15 years, Bob has reunited with other men from his team. “A captain of mine was killed in action when I was there (in Vietnam) in ’69. I went to where the captain was buried in Wisconsin. I was welcomed by the (Gold Star) families. There are no questions asked by these families.”
As the final notes of TAPS faded across Veterans Park, the crowd stood in quiet reflection beneath the fluttering flags. The new Gold Star Memorial Marker, surrounded by blooms of red, white and blue, now joins the landscape as a permanent reminder of sacrifice, loss and remembrance.
For Gold Star Families, the marker represents loved ones whose service ended too soon. For veterans like Bob Crandall, it stands for brothers-in-arms whose absence is felt every day.
"The guilt stays, whether it's appropriate or not," Bob said softly.
FOR MORE INFORMATION on Gold Star Families, visit americasgoldstarfamilies.org.
THUMB-R-GREEN
56 years of growing community
If you’d like to join fellow green thumbs, the Thumb-R-Green Garden Club meets at First Baptist Church, located at 218 N 34th St., on the fourth Monday of every month at 10 a.m. Please email garden club president Bob Wicks at bobwix@hotmail.com for more information, on how to become a member, of if you wish to donate. There are close to three dozen members. One of their major projects is tending the gardens at MetraPark and Sunset Memorial Gardens.
