wfn.org | UMNS# 04573-United Methodist ensures each hometown soldier gets

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United Methodist ensures each hometown soldier gets parade 

Dec. 6, 2004	 News media contact:   Fran  Walsh * (615) 742-5458* 
Nashville {04573}

NOTE: and a UMTV report are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Lindsay Ferrier*

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Flanked by his wife and child, Pfc. George
McCready sits atop a city fire engine and beams at the bustling streets. 
 
The scene is a far cry from the war-torn roads of Fallujah, where McCready
spent time guarding a bridge from suicide bombers.  
 
On this November afternoon, he is receiving a hero's welcome home from Iraq,
acting as grand marshal in a parade held just for him. As the procession
winds through downtown streets, bordered with cheering Putnam County
residents, McCready's joy is evident.  
 
"I've been gone a long time," he says. "It feels good to be home."
 
McCready is one of more than a dozen Cookeville soldiers whose return from
Iraq has been celebrated with a citywide parade. National Guard member Frank
Robertson led his own parade just a few weeks earlier. 
 
Remembering the feelings of pride and honor it stirred within him, Robertson
showed up to join the crowd cheering for McCready. "It just brings tears to
your eyes to see your little girl next to you smiling and waving, to see your
wife glassy eyed with that big smile," he recalls. "It's the best feeling in
the world."
 
The parades are the idea of Lisa Bishop, a United Methodist and president of
the Putnam County Soldier Support Group. 
 
In addition to organizing 17 parades as of Dec. 1, her group helps the
soldiers' families back home in Cookeville. Members do all they can to answer
the families' physical, emotional and spiritual needs.	
 
"We don't see color and we don't see branches," Bishop says. "We see soldiers
and heroes. We see families left behind.  If you need us, we are there."  
 
Bishop can't recall how she came up with the idea to hold parades for
returning soldiers. She knew she wanted the returning troops to receive
better treatment than two of her brothers did when they returned home from
serving in Vietnam. Bishop has five brothers, who have a combined total of
102 years in the military.
 
Once the idea of the parades entered her mind, she knew she had to act. The
quick support she received from city officials led her to conclude a higher
presence was behind the idea.  
 
"It shocks me sometimes," she says with a laugh, recalling the ease with
which her plan came to fruition.  "Where did it come from?  It didn't come
from me; it came from God because I don't think that way."
 
The first parade was held July 4, 2003, for a special soldier: her son, Lance
Cpl. Mathew Bishop.
 
Bishop's pastor, Friendship United Methodist Church's Gerald Taylor, believes
the parades help wash away the horrors of war for returning soldiers.  
 
"It's a moment that will stay with them the rest of their lives," he says.
"Those guys swell up. You can't keep from smiling, and they can't keep from
smiling."  
 
Bishop's efforts prove that with divine inspiration and a little effort,
anyone can make a positive difference in the lives of others, Taylor says.
"Lisa is a minister, as we all are, and she is very effective. She gets cards
and calls from some of those people that she's their angel, and what bigger
compliment can you get than that?"
 
Inspired by Bishop's zeal, Taylor has begun placing local soldiers' pictures
on his church's altar each Sunday. Church members are encouraged to approach
the altar during services to pray for the safe return of their local heroes. 
 
Taylor also has opened his church to Bishop's support group for projects and
storage needs. Group members are using church space to prepare hundreds of
Christmas presents to send to Putnam Country soldiers stationed in Iraq. The
gifts are small, but significant. Some soldiers will receive $10 bills.
Others will get decorated paper towel rolls filled with hard candy, a
creative gift Bishop designed especially for the soldiers when they're out on
patrol. The paper towel rolls are small enough to fit inside soldiers' vests,
and candy can be pulled out one piece at a time.
 
Bishop's favorite way to support local soldiers continues to be the personal
parades, and she hopes her idea will catch on in other towns. She never tires
of seeing the line of fire engines, police vehicles and decorated private
cars as they roll through the streets. The parades begin with a public
ceremony, awarding the soldier a key to the city, and end wherever the
soldier would like, often at his or her own front door.
 
McCready has a different destination in mind for his parade. The memory of
field rations - or "meals ready to eat," in Army parlance - is still fresh,
and he grins as the fire engine pulls into the parking lot of his favorite
restaurant. 
 
"It's my decision," he says. "Golden Corral has good food. Anything beats
MREs."
 

 
*Ferrier is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.
 
News media contact: Fran Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5458 or
newsdesk@umcom.org. 

********************

United Methodist News Service
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