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Fort Lewis allows civilians a glimpse of military life

May-22-2005 » Filed Under: Homefront

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AARON CORVIN; The News Tribune

Standing under the green-and-white-striped tent, Preston Chanpuang, a wiry 14-year-old, lobbed questions and absorbed the Special Forces recruiter’s answers.

“The Air Force is an easier life,” the recruiter told him, “but you’ve got to go with what you want.”

What Chanpuang wants is to serve in the military. His family lives at Fort Lewis. His dad is a Stryker brigade member. When he was younger he donned his dad’s Kevlar helmet and yelled: “Duck and cover!”

“I’m learning everything about what I want to do,” said Chanpuang, who was among an estimated 17,000 people who swarmed Fort Lewis on Saturday to honor the United States military during the 17th annual Armed Forces Day.

Led by President Harry Truman, the United States created Armed Forces Day in 1949 to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force days.

The intention of the day is simple: to celebrate and honor the military, and to broaden the public’s understanding of it.

Saturday’s event offered plenty of opportunities to celebrate and honor all branches of the military, as well as their histories.

If you wanted to get inside a hulk of a military vehicle, you could. If you just wanted to take in the sights and sounds, you could do that, too.

During a parachute jump, several Green Berets streaked the gray sky. On the ground, kids scrambled into the back of a Stryker vehicle to check out its high-tech interior as their parents snapped photos.

One boy cranked a model 1890 Gatling gun. The metal-on-metal noise of slide-action rifles broke what few moments of silence there were as soldiers showed civilians the tools of war.[...]


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