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Show ICIMES March 18, 2010 KIM COOK/U.S. Air Force Hill Air Force Base personnel gather at the parking lot near the Airman and Family Readiness Center on March 12 to work as volunteers at the potato drop off or to take a bag of potatoes home to make use of them. No small potatoes generosity at BY MARY LOU GORNY Hilltop Times editor N o matter how you peel them — or if you don't — 40,000 pounds of potatoes makes a fairly large mound in a parking lot when you pile up approximately 840 fifty-pound sacks. That's the size of the contribution Team Hill received March 12 through the generosity of Tom Holm, an Idaho Falls farmer, and U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Reginald Reeves, now a practicing Idaho Falls attorney, who conducts a large outreach program out of Southern Idaho. "There were a lot of them and most of them were baking size," said Craig Nielsen, Airman and Family Readiness Center, as he described the donation. Volunteers helped distribute potatoes frohi a parking lot near the center from 10 a.m. until 3:45 p.m.. "We were giving out potatoes all day long except for a short break in the afternoon, when we had to stop for awhile," said Nielsen. When Reeves first made contact with Hill Air Force Base through the Retiree Activities Office, Nielsen heard about the idea and ran with it. "(We) loved the idea that someone in the community would make that kind of awesome gesture — potatoes aren't that expensive — (it's) the thought of somebody going to all the trouble and spending a lot of money to provide those potatoes for the Hill community," Nielsen said. "(Reeves) wanted to support the warriors and support those that support the warriors, so that means everybody here at Hill," Nielsen said. Doug Andrus Trucking provided a tractor trailer and another business donated the packing supplies. WITH HONOR back one time, and that was before I went to basic (training) to Hilltop Times correspondent let him know I'd try to get in conhen Airman 1st Class tact with him after that." Christopher Kirchner Kirchner had lived his life received orders in June without knowledge of his bioof 2008 to Hill Air Force Base logical father until prior to his after completing technical traindecision to join the Air Force. ing at Sheppard AFB, Texas, he He learned soon after that he was unaware that his estranged now shared a common trait with biological father, Mark AlbertAlbertson — military service — son, was moving from Tennessee as Albertson served in the intelto Perry, Utah, at the same time. ligence field in the Army with . Kirchner's mother, however, was Kirchner's mother, who was a informed of both events indepen- mail clerk in the Army. Their dently by both of them and she commitment to military serknew it would be a perfect oppor- vice would help build the bridge tunity for the two to finally meet. between the father and son and "I had received several e-mails allow them to meet on common from Mark before I went to baground. sic training," recalled Kirchner, "Mark and his wife, Denise, who is now an aerospace ground had arrived in Utah around the equipment mechanic with the springtime (in 2008) and my 388th Equipment Maintenance Squadron here. "I wrote him See MEET I page 11 W Tech Sgt. Thomas Smith holds the neatly folded flag as the the Hill Air Force Base Honor Guard practices for a funeral detail at their headquarters on base on \larch 9. The group is often called upon to serve at official functions, funerals and rjiernorials, and members are asked to give two weeks out of every six to the honor guard each year. For more photos, more about the honor guard and what it takes to become a member see page 10. £•• . .. ...,-. . . See SPUDS I page 11 Mending the past, brightening the future BY LEE ANNE HENSLEY NICHOLAS DRANEY/Standard-Examiner Holm, the potato grower, rode down with Bill Jensen, a Vietnam veteran, who volunteered to drive the tractor trailer from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Hill AFB. "It was slow because it was so heavy going up the mountain passes," Holm said. Nielsen described the potato giveaway as a unique situation because the Airman and Readiness Center usually does not accept this type of donation because of logistical reasons. The center was working simply as the point of contact — a distribution point. "A lot of times people try to donate things to us," Nielsen said. "We can't take monetary donations directly, they must go through our private organization, the Utah Military Families Foundation. We can take gift certificates (or) phone cards. Every day we have families in need who if |