MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. -- It is one o'clock on Thursday. A jumbo jet carrying 250 Marines bound for Afghanistan has just left the deployment processing center at March ARB and is taxiing down the runway. The Marines had arrived at 4 a.m., but weather conditions delayed their flight for nine hours.
Mrs. Laura Froehlich, a 24-year March volunteer and recent winner of the Navy's Spirit of Hope Award for exceptional volunteerism, has just said personal good-byes to each of the 250 Marines as they boarded the jet. She is at her tiny office in the processing center, checking her schedule for the weekend.
On Friday and Saturday, she's volunteering at a local triathlon, where she'll earn a stipend that she'll use to buy more supplies for the processing center. On Sunday morning--at 1: 30 a.m., to be exact--another group of 250 Marines will be departing. Miss Laura, as the troops affectionately call her, will be there with them until their plane takes off at 7 a.m. She'll need a couple of people to assist. Any volunteers?
HURRY UP AND WAIT
If the Marines had left from a different deployment center, they would have spent the nine hours of waiting sitting on a cement floor in an empty building or cramped onto wooden bleachers. The amenities in the facility would have included restrooms and a drinking fountain, a soda machine, if they were lucky.
But because these Marines deployed from March Air Reserve Base, they spent the nine hours relaxing in the spacious, decorated interior of a historic aircraft hangar.
They enjoyed breakfast foods and hot beverages in the morning and the now-famous peanut butter and jelly sandwich bar at lunch. They browsed the library of free books and played pool and cards with their buddies. They found quiet areas for talking to their loved ones on cell phones, napped in the warm sunbeams from the windows and watched movies on big screen TVs.
None of the bonus amenities at March are required by Department of Defense regulations, nor are they funded. The hangar at March was created and is operated by a team of more than 100 volunteers. Like Laura, many of the volunteer hosts spend time fundraising and seeking donations to stock and continually improve the hangar.
Supplying a deployment hangar that is the Air Primary Point of Departure for Southern California is no small feat. The hangar saw 49,849 troops in 2009. Since 9/11, Laura has greeted and said goodbye to an estimated 250,000 troops.
THE HANGAR
What Laura and her team of volunteers have created at March is not just a cushy, military imitation of a civilian airport with a special planeside good-bye. While the hangar does make the 'wait' part of the 'hurry up and wait' accordion service members experience while transiting to and from the U.S. Central Command more enjoyable, the hangar serves a much more important function.
"Two hours ago we were saying good-bye to our loved ones and this is bringing our spirits back up," Marine Capt. Scott Newman said as he observed his Marines scattered about the hangar, quietly playing games and foraging at the food table.
Captain Newman is a member of the 100-person Military Police unit from the I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton that deployed from the hangar Nov. 17.
When service members arrive at a deployment processing center, they are transitioning from saying good-bye to their families to boarding a plane bound for a combat zone. The warm, welcoming atmosphere of the deployment hangar is a soothing catalyst for the emotional transformation.
"It gives us a place to de-stress after saying good-bye to family. It helps us with the transition from stateside operations to going overseas," said a Marine officer who could not be identified because of the nature of his mission. He's transited through the deployment hangar five times.
Sgt. Kyle Hill, who was playing cards with Corporal Stuckell, said the deployment hangar keeps the Marines active so they're not just sitting around, which is important, considering air transportation to entry points for Iraq and Afghanistan can often take more than 20 hours.
The ride can be grueling for the service members. In all-male operating units, such as the Nov. 17 military police unit, every seat on the plane is occupied by a muscled military man wearing a bulky uniform and carrying bulky carry-on luggage. The time at the hangar gives the men a chance to stretch out and take some snacks for the airplane, which the March volunteers hope will make their ride just a little more enjoyable.
Flight delays cause the trip overseas to become even longer. When a delay extends through the night, Laura and her volunteers have cots and blankets, towels and toiletries pre-staged for the service members.
"This [the hangar] would not happen without the incredible, incredible group of volunteers, some that have been with me for seven years. These are volunteers who don't hesitate when I say, 'the flight's landing at 2:30 a.m., can you be there at 1:30 a.m.?' And who, when the flight is delayed, will stay until the plane leaves without me needing to pull in another shift," Laura said.
Marine Corps Sgt. Joshua Anderson and Sgt. Ryan Martin have unique perspectives about the deployment hangar. Both were stationed at the hangar in 2006 as part of a Temporary Additional Duty assignment to the Air Arrival and Departure Group at March. The group administers all troop movements from the hangar. After the TAD assignment, both transited through the hangar as deployers. Both are back with Laura for a second tour.
"There have been a lot of things that have improved over the years, because Miss Laura fights for them," said Sergeant Martin.
Both Sergeants have observed the hangar's effect on transiting troops' mental transition.
"It helps keep everybody's guard down," said Sergeant Anderson.
"It seems like when they get off the bus, they are in deployment mode--moody and tense. This gives them a chance to relax and decompress," Sergeant Martin said. "By the time they're leaving, they are joking and laughing."
I'LL BE HERE
The posh deployment hangar is only part of the signature March treatment for deploying troops. The second element is the planeside good-bye and hello Laura Froehlich gives each and every deploying service member.
"I make sure I look every single one of them in the eye and tell them to be safe, because I know some of them aren't coming back," Laura said. "They're sent out of here with support and love. They know that."
Laura tells all the troops that she'll be back to greet them when they return. And she always is.
"They know I'm going to be here when they get home. A lot of times, they walk off the plane with a gift for me in their hands. A coin, or a scarf, or a pin. As soon as they touch down, they start looking for me," she said.
"She's there every time I get on and off. She's my good luck charm," said the Marine officer who could not be identified by name. "I know people who will not get on the plane without her being here. But that's a funny thing to say, because she's always here--no if, ands or buts."
Laura said there is a Marine Corps master gunnery sergeant that arrived with his unit at the hangar last month that took his twelfth photo with her: one photo for each arrival and departure of his six deployments.
"When you're on deployment, everyone hears about her and they want to meet her," said Sergeant Martin.
Marine Sgt. Geoffrey Halterman, a member of the Military Police unit that deployed Nov. 17, noted the importance of Laura's planeside hugs and handshakes.
"She's the last civilian you see before you're surrounded by Department of Defense personnel or people who are paid to be there [bases abroad]. To us, she's a mother figure and a grandmother figure," Sergeant Halterman said.
And like the mother and grandmother she is in real life, Laura is available for the troops 24/7, even if it means accepting phone calls from Iraq or Afghanistan in the middle of the night.
"They just want to talk to a mom that's not their mom. They don't want to worry their own mother, but they need to talk. I just let them babble," Laura said.
A few years back, a general who knew Laura asked her to contact the mother of a Marine Corps pilot whose helicopter had crashed in Iraq, killing all seven people aboard. The son's name was Jared and he had grown up in Big Bear. Laura remembered him distinctly from when he departed from the deployment hangar (Jared is her all time favorite male name). She remembered having a conversation with him and giving him a hug good-bye.
"His mother thanked me because she was finally able to put a portion of her grieving about her son on the shelf. She had been feeling guilty for not being there and hugging him and sending him off with love. As soon as she knew there was someone like me that did that for her son, she was able to put that portion of her grief aside and she thanked me for being the mom that she couldn't be when he left," Laura said.
THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Being around Laura, it is impossible not to feel the contagious pull of her patriotism. She has a yellow ribbon tattoo on her wrist, wears a permanent metal POW/MIA bracelet and has a red, white and blue embellishment on one of her fingernails. Even her cell phone ring is patriotic, playing the song, "Proud to be an American," by Lee Greenwood.
Laura began her volunteer service at March ARB in Dec. 1985 with the Moreno Valley Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Committees. She's worked every air show and military appreciation picnic since.
During OPERATION DESERT STORM, she served burgers and hot dogs to the returning troops. After the severe wildfire season in 2007, she and NOSC Moreno Valley founded the Serving our Sailors food bank that continues today. It was after 9/11, when troop movements began increasing, when she began the transformation of the hangar.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't shed a tear during the day for 9/11," Laura said. "We can never forget. I have never forgotten."
For her, 9/11 was a tragic reminder of the fragile nature of the freedoms United States citizens enjoy: freedoms that are protected by service members.
"They are doing what they do because it's the right thing to do. How can we not do the same for them and say thank you?" Laura asks.
The affect of Laura's spirit of patriotism and service reaches much further than transiting service members, as she is an inspiration and catalyst for countless Team March members, fellow volunteers and the Marine Corps arrival and departure group members.
"She always gives one hundred percent," said Sergeant Anderson.
"It's not a hobby for her, it's her life," said Sergeant Martin.
Laura's tie to serving her country is in her blood. Laura's father served in the Army for 30 years. Her mother-in-law was an Army WAC and her father-in-law was in the Army Air Corps.
Laura herself was once a troop, serving as an Airman from 1970-72 before becoming pregnant with her daughter, Laurice Froehlich, who is now a master sergeant with the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing of the Air National Guard. In the early 70s, women who had children were not allowed to serve in the Air Force. Laura's husband is Lawrence Froehlich, who retired from the Air Force Reserve and is now a March ARB civilian.
THE FAREWELL
With the Marines of the Nov. 17 departure lined up inside the hangar, shifting under the awkward weight of their rifles, gallon jugs of water and naughtily over-stuffed backpacks on their chests, it is time for Laura to pre-stage at the aircraft. She exits to the flight line side of the hangar and climbs into the golf cart which her Marines have painted with an exterior motif of digital camouflage and an American flag interior.
As Laura starts the engine, she sees the Marines have already begun their crisp, single-file march to the plane. She puts the pedal to the metal and the little cart zips to the jet, where Laura expertly pulls into a loop just to the left of the stairs. She has done this a time or two.
She takes her place at the right of the stairs and watches the geometric snake of Marines advancing in the distance. She straightens her name tag, which is adorned with a dozen rank pins--all tokens of appreciation from service members--and takes a swig of Diet Coke. She'll need her voice to say good-bye and thank-you to each of the 108 Marines.
Laura's smile is bright as the first Marine approaches. She reaches for his hand and says, "Thank you for what you do. I'll see you when you get home." Twenty or so handshakes later, a young Marine smiles sheepishly when she tells him she'll be there when he gets home. "I will," she tells him. "I'll be right here." A Marine behind him pipes up. "She will, man," he says.
The line slows as the Marines inside the aircraft stow their carry-on bags and get settled into their seats. As the line stops all together, Laura has a chance to have short conversations and exchange hugs with a few of the men.
"This is sixth time I've seen you," one of them says.
The line gets going again and it's more handshakes, good-byes, and orders from Laura to stay safe. At the end of the line, where the most senior men are, the farewells are markedly more emotional. The longer the men have served, the more times they've deployed, and the more times they've said good-bye and hello to Laura.
Laura turns to watch the last Marine of the group disappear into the plane. Even though she's said good-bye to hundreds of troops, her gratitude for the men on today's flight isn't any less profound. Laura gets back in the golf cart to return to the hangar, where she will thank her volunteers and arrival and departure group Marines and check her schedule and prepare for the rest of the week's arrivals and departures.