HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The simple things can mean a lot to someone in the armed forces. "I think it's amazing how powerful it is when you come up to a soldier or sailors, airmen, marine, and you just stop and say, hey, thanks for what you're doing, thanks for your service," Major General, US Army (Retired) James Myles shares. "It is powerful to be able to when you hear that word, it says, I know I've been through an awful lot and that person sees who I am."
All this week the Huntsville Madison Chamber have been saying thank you in grand fashion as they celebrated Armed Forces Week, but those in uniform weren't the only focus. "It's not only just the Armed Forces, it's also the civilians on the arsenal here that provide so much support," Myles shares. "And so, what we've been doing this whole week is we had several events that focused on how the community wanted to say thanks back to the armed forces."
Redstone is the home of the four-star Army Materiel Command and a dozen other Army Commands and Offices, as well as offices for the Missile Defense Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Over 43,000 people work on Redstone, and more than $50 billion in federal budgets are managed on the base, but even service members get tired. "When you're out in the field and you're out protecting our country, you're out alone," Myles shares. "You're with other soldiers where you're trying to protect the nation and protect all the families in our country. It's not easy. There are no hotels in the middle of Afghanistan. There are no freeways here. There's no Starbucks. It's just working, working 24 hours a day and trying to keep our bodies, our right and left alive."
In celebration of the role that Redstone Arsenal plays in the defense of our nation and the economic impact that it has on our region, the Chamber hosted a series event that allowed those service members to simply relax. "It's very important for them to be able to relax and the way that they can relax is by telling a soldier, we care about you. We love you," Myles shares. "That's what this community does when it says, stop, we're going to sign a proclamation and we're going to say, we know who you are, and we appreciate what you do."