As you are all well aware, the Army Experience Center (A.E.C.) is a cutting-edge recruiting station here in Philadelphia set to close its doors next week.  It was never intended to be a permanent station, having a two year tenure from its inception.  Of course the knuckleheads who have protested the A.E.C. a couple times in the past year are claiming they exerted pressure to close it, but nothing could be further from the truth.  As always, the ultra-leftists never let the truth get in the way of a good story.  Last night though, the A.E.C. hosted a dinner to thank its soldiers, civilian employees and the larger veteran’s community for making it a success.  The doors of the A.E.C will close for the last time Friday, but the lessons learned there over the past two years will reverberate across the country for a long time to come.

The statue accompanying this post was presented to me on behalf of GoE, Second Brigade MC, Viet Nam Vets MC, S.E. Pennsylvania Confederation of Clubs and our larger veteran’s community.  It is a beautiful statue of an eagle with an American flag in its talons.  That the award was wholly unexpected made receiving it even more touching.  Lt. Cdr. Joe Eastman USN Ret. received an identical statue, and deservedly so.  Believe me when I say we were both moved when they were handed to us.  Let me also say that this is not my statue.  It belongs to all of you who have assisted with our various actions at, and with, the A.E.C.  I did not stand in the doorway of the A.E.C. alone when the miscreants came to protest, and I did not accept the statue alone.  Although I may have been physically alone accepting it on our behalf, you were all with me in spirit.  I could not have accomplished anything without all of you standing with me. Whether it is on a bitter cold day on the Mall in D.C., in the doors of the A.E.C., behind the line serving food to homeless, packing boxes for our brave warriors in the combat theaters, or a myriad of other events with which I had no personal involvement.

As the A.E.C. prepares to close, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly praise the soldiers and civilians who worked there for the past two years.  In addition to providing cutting edge technology for young men and women who wish to join the Army, they have provided a community center atmosphere where kids can come and hang out after school and be safe.  They have mentored, literally, hundreds of teenagers, some of whom later joined the Army and some whom did not.  It mattered not to the mentors whether they joined up or not, but it meant volumes to the teens who received the soldier’s time and attention.  The soldiers also provided valuable tutelage to kids of all ages and dramatically improved their scholastic scores, not, as some would have you believe, to provide fodder for the Army, but because it was simply the right thing to do.

The soldiers at the A.E.C. did a number of other things too that brought them no public accolades, nor praise, but did result in a nice smattering of military awards for several of them.  These soldiers helped serve lunch at our weekly homeless veteran’s lunch every month for nearly a year.  They single-handedly rehabbed playgrounds, painted over graffiti, organized three-on-three basketball and huge video game tournaments.  While they managed these actions, these soldiers worked more than 40 hours a week as recruiters and endured vicious, scurrilous attacks from protesters who have no idea of the good works accomplished by these soldiers, and cared less.

Last September GoE, SBMC, VNV MC, the SEPA CoC, and a huge number of rank and file veterans and troop supporters stood their ground at the A.E.C. to prevent protesters from succeeding in their publicly announced mission.  These truly bad people had announced that they intended to storm the A.E.C. and disrupt the events scheduled for that day.  Forget the fact that the event scheduled for last September was a commemoration for those lost on September 11, 2001.  Well, much like on the day of GoE’s inception back in March 2007, the veteran’s community stood tall and said NOT ON OUR WATCH, and the protesters were prevented from breaching the Center.  While standing outside the doors of the Center with a number of you, I heard the oft repeated refrain from the protesters that the A.E.C. was nothing more than a glorified video game parlor where children were being groomed to commit war crimes by playing violent video games.  Let’s also forget that the same video games played at the A.E.C. are no doubt in game consoles at most, if not all, of the protesters homes, and are played daily by their own children. 

So, what now for the Army Experience Center?  Well, the brave warriors who have served there for the last two years are all being assigned elsewhere.  They will take with them valuable lessons learned and a commitment that transcends their personal military careers.  They will take with them a sense of community fostered by their contact with the veteran’s community, as well as those who have never served, but benefited from that cooperation in a number of ways.  It is a well-known maxim that bad habits are hard to break, but what gets forgotten all too often is that good habits are equally hard to break.  The soldiers and staff of the A.E.C have developed the good habit of wanting to be part of, and a benefit to, the larger community in whatever way they can.  As I was leaving the event last night I made my last handshake stop with two infantrymen from the A.E.C.  I said to them, “I am proud beyond belief to be not only a fellow owner of that Blue Cord you both possess, but also to be an Army veteran.  The things you have all done here will never be forgotten, and I want you to know that you have touched many more lives than any of you will ever know.  For that we ALL owe you a debt of thanks.” 

I hope in some small way this post makes everyone who reads it understand the high esteem in which I hold the brave men and women who have served at the Army Experience Center and hope the same is true of you all.  Thank you my brothers and sisters in arms for helping me to help them.  You, the soldiers and civilian staff of the A.E.C., as well as the rest of our brave men and women in uniform are truly the best among us, and to be part of that club is something that never fails to move me.  Manchu.