Wreaths Across America teams up with other like-minded organization to advance the mission to remember our fallen, honor those who serve, and teach younger generations the value of freedom. One of our partners of long-standing is the Civil Air Patrol (CAP).
The Civil Air Patrol serves as a Total Force partner and auxiliary of the United States Air Force. Its 60,000 members selflessly devote their time, energy and expertise toward the wellbeing of their communities, while also promoting aviation and related fields through aerospace/STEM education and helping shape future leaders through CAP’s cadet program.
“I was always fascinated with flight and when my son was little most of our activities together revolved around aerospace. We started with rockets and then moved on to remote-controlled airplanes, choppers, and drones.”
2012 was also Joe’s first introduction to Wreaths Across America. The squadron was established as a Wreaths Across America participating group in 2007 by Lt Col Anthony Cichocki USMC, USAF, CT ANG (ret.). Joe says the committee meetings for the event were held at the Department of Veterans Affairs Cemetery office.
“When I first arrived I was very intimidated, and I was awed by the people who worked there,” Joe recalls. “I had a lot of respect for them, and I felt inadequate. I spent the first year just listening and observing how things were done. I didn’t put my two cents in at all.”
Joe’s position as a team member changed in a big way in 2013 when he was assigned by Captain Richard Abbate to be the Location Coordinator for the CAP Squadron’s Wreaths Across America effort.
“In 2013 when I became the coordinator, I began to see things differently,” Joe admits. “I did not feel the same sense of accomplishment that others around me felt. I felt saddened actually. I saw that we had about three hundred or so wreaths and I looked around me in the cemetery and saw all the bare stones and no footprints in the snow. It brought tears to my eyes, and from the background I came from I thought to myself this was not acceptable.”
Joe’s grandfather served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines during WW II. His father served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War, and a brother and sister served in the U.S. Army.
“At first I didn’t think that I had earned the right to speak for them and our fallen heroes but then it occurred to me that if I didn’t, no one else would, so I made myself accountable for the effort to cover those headstones.”
Joe says he reached out to Connecticut’s Commissioner of Veterans Affairs at the time and got himself introduced to the veteran community. He reached out to the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veteran service organizations.
“Once I did that, I was able to meet with them individually and tell them Wreaths Across America is all about them and the people they lost and the honor of their service. When you have the veterans with you it gives you a sense of belonging; that you have a right to talk about them, and be their voice. You learn from them, and you share that knowledge with the public.”
Joe’s dedication to the mission, personal connections in fundraising and volunteer leadership strategies resulted in the sponsorship and placement of 10,000 veterans’ wreaths in 2017 at the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown, Connecticut and ceremonial wreaths for a service at the smaller Col. Raymond Gates Memorial Cemetery in Rocky Hill.
In 2018, the ceremony in Rocky Hill, conducted by the 103rd Composite Squadron, will include wreath-laying as well which will require the sponsorship of 1,500 additional wreaths, and Joe’s not likely to stop there.
“There are about 108,000 veterans buried in the state of Connecticut, and that tells me there are hundreds more who have not been identified as such,” explains Joe. “I’m not proud of the work that’s been done yet because there’s so much more to do.”
Joe encourages others to get involved in their communities with the Wreaths Across America mission.
“My best advice is to get started early and make it a year-round opportunity to talk about the effort. Until you get involved, you won’t fully understand the powerful emotion behind the mission, and once you do, you’ll be hooked.”
Wreaths Across America thanks you Captain Joe Sanborn and all of our other dedicated CAP volunteers across the country.
