Adopt a Sailor For Thanksgiving
Here in the States, there are all kinds of Thanksgiving traditions. Breaking wishbones in the kitchen, family toasts around the dining room table and, of course, turkey dinners are a few of the most popular, but there’s one Thanksgiving day tradition that you’ll only see around the Great Lakes in Indiana. A few families and nonprofit organizations near Naval Station Great Lakes make it a point to adopt a sailor for the day.
Specifically, they adopt Navy recruits who are in the middle of basic training. The Adopt-a-Sailor program has been around for over 50 years, and the idea is to give young recruits a home for the holidays.
The Hammond Mohawks Athletics and Conservation Club, a local nonprofit in Indiana, has been adopting sailors and treating them to a special Thanksgiving dinner every year since 2013. Pete Vukovich, one of the Hammond Mohawks who helps coordinate the event each year, took some time to chat with us about the program and shed some light on the special nonprofit challenge coins he and the club give to all the young recruits.
A Thanksgiving to Remember With the Hammond Mohawks
Sailors adopted by the Hammond Mohawks for Thanksgiving every year are usually not far removed from high school, and still trying to get accustomed to military life. It’s easy for them to feel lonely and homesick as they go through training. Vukovich said, “These are kids that are normally between 19 and 22 years old, somewhere in that area. A lot of them, this is their first time away from a home.”
Basic training at Naval Station Great Lakes is an intensive eight weeks where recruits are completely cut off from civilian life. There are no phone calls or electronic devices of any kind available to sailors. Vukovich, who himself attended basic training at the Great Lakes facility, says that it’s all part of the discipline instilled in all of our Nation’s soldiers.
However, he also understands how much something like the Adopt-a-Sailor program means to young recruits in the midst of military training. “This gives them an opportunity to come out, to call home, to have a nice sit-down meal, at least that’s what we give them, and spend the day away from the base,” he said.
Families that live within 50 miles of the Great Lakes facility can take their son or daughter home for Thanksgiving, but it’s only a minority of recruits who have families nearby. “Most of the sailors that come to the dinner live in Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona, wherever,” said Vukovich. Thanks to the help of organizations like the Hammond Mohawks, around 4,000 of the sailors who could not go home for Thanksgiving were adopted last year.
Each year is different, but Vukovich said that his organization generally hosts around 50 recruits. Out of everything they provide for the sailors, the phone and skype calls are often the most popular because the recruits have not had a chance to talk to their families since reporting for basic training. Overall, it’s a fun night that allows recruits to slip back into the civilian world for a while and relax.
Vukovich described one of his favorite memories from all the Thanksgivings he has helped organize for the Adopt-a-Sailor program, saying, “A couple of years ago, I watched a young man talking to his wife on Skype on the computer, and he saw, for the first time, his newborn son.” He explained how it was an emotional experience for everyone around.
For the Hammond Mohawks, the Thanksgiving Adopt-a-Sailor program is not only about giving sailors a home for the Holidays, it’s also about giving sailors the chance to connect with their own families all across the nation. Members of the local community send cards and small gifts to the sailors to show their support and appreciation, but recruits have to leave almost everything behind when the day is over.
There is one exception: challenge coins.
Introducing Recruits to the Challenge Coin Tradition
By looking at the history of challenge coins in the armed service, it’s easy to see how they’ve become a meaningful way to show appreciation and to honor the courage of soldiers at all times during the year, not just Thanksgiving. The custom coins and the Thanksgiving dinner the Hammond Mohawks create for the sailors are intended to show support and gratitude, but Vukovich says that there is another important reason that they’ve made challenge coins a Thanksgiving day tradition.
All of the sailors are still in training, so none of them have received their first challenge coin. Vukovich said, “Our intentions with the challenge coins are threefold: One is to give the recruit his or her very first challenge coin of their Navy career.” The other two uses for the challenge coins are to commemorate the celebration and to honor the volunteers and sponsors who make the event a success.
By giving sailors their very first challenge coin, the Hammond Mohawks are also introducing them to a new tradition. As they continue their careers in the military, they will collect more and more challenge coins from different bases, Military Birthday Balls and all kinds of special events similar to the Adopt-a-Sailor Thanksgiving.
This year’s design features the Hammond Mohawks A&CC logo on one side and a 3D image of Neptune on the other. The Navy’s motto, Not For Self, But Country, and the Navy’s core values, Honor, Courage, Commitment, are also included around the edge of the coin. The artwork for the coins is different every year, so no group of sailors will ever receive the same coin.
Passing Traditions From One Generation to the Next
Vukovich explained that a lot of members of the Hammond Mohawks are military veterans who are excited to volunteer for the event each year. “I actually have a waiting list of people who want to help in this,” he said. While he can’t have all 200 members of the Hammond Mohawks serve 50-55 sailors, Vukovich still tries to make sure everyone can get involved.
“I invite members who aren’t actually going to be working to come on out and to talk to these young people, share a sea story with them, you know, whatever the case might be,” he said. “I’m always amazed at how respectful the veterans … are to the new recruits, and how respectful the new recruits are to the veterans that have served in past conflicts and stuff. It’s just amazing to see that camaraderie between the two groups.”
As Thanksgiving day comes to a close, the recruits are loaded up onto a bus and taken back to Naval Station Great Lakes to finish their last few weeks of basic training. The Hammond Mohawks make sure that the Adopt-a-Sailor event is full of familiar Thanksgiving traditions like a home-cooked turkey dinner and time with family, even if it’s just a skype call, but they also make sure to introduce one new military tradition. Challenge coins are not your everyday Thanksgiving tradition, but they will be a big part of each recruit’s military life from that day on.
