By GLYNIS HART
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NEWPORT — “Our organization is about anybody serving our country,” said Tammy Freckleton. That organization, Sullivan County Cares, started four years ago to raise money to send care packages to soldiers overseas.
Their biggest fundraiser is a singing competition held at the Newport Opera House. This year The Voices That Care will take place March 30 at 6:30 p.m.
“During the show we honor all the veterans in the hall and we honor a Gold Star mom,” said Freckleton. “We make a scrapbook for the mom based on things she’s sent us.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Freckleton. In four years Sullivan County Cares has put together 891 packages, which they send in July. “We figure everybody gets a lot at Christmas, so this is Christmas in July.”
This year they’re honoring a Gold Star Mom from Maryland, Theresa Mills Karlson, whose son Lance Corporal Eugene Mills III, USMC was killed June 22, 2012 in Afghanistan. A group will meet Karlson at the Manchester airport Friday, then escort her to Newport where she’ll meet Gold Star Family Skip and Rhonda Rollins at LaValley’s. Four bikers in the Patriot Guard, a group with a mission to respect and protect veterans and the families of those who have died in military service, will be with the escort.
“Our town is going to honor them for the weekend,” said Freckleton. “Unfortunately we’re a small non-profit, so we can’t pay for their flight, but we get a room donated and Salt hill Pub donates their meal.”
Freckleton also has a son in military service. “I try to make sure every Gold Star mom knows, we’re going to remember your son. He’s not going to be forgotten.
“We should be honoring our fallen every day,” she said. “These families need to know their children didn’t die for nothing.”
Eugene Mills III
“He was a character,” said Theresa Karlson of her son, Eugene. “He was a typical boy, always into everything.”
Karlson’s family has a tradition of military service: her father served in World War II, her two brothers joined the Navy during the Vietnam War, and her other brother was in the Coast Guard. Eugene’s father, Eugene Mills Jr., is a retired police officer. The family lives in Maryland.
“Gene decided to join the Marines because nobody else in the family had ever been in the Marines,” Karlson said. “He joined right after high school in 2008.”
“I’ll tell you honestly, I have a college degree and I was saving up money for my sons to go to college,” said Karlson. “Then Gene decided he was going in the Marine Corps.”
At the time, Mills was 17 years old, so his enlistment required his parent’s signature. “I hated doing it,” she said. “I didn’t want to sign those papers at all. I said, ‘I’ll only sign these papers because this is what you want.’ This was my chance to support him.”
Mills was on his second deployment when his brother Jake, younger by five years, decided to enlist.
“He said, ‘Don’t let him sign anything until I talk to him,’” Karlson remembered. “He said, ‘I want to talk to him when I get back.”
At the time, Mills had about one month to the end of his tour. As they often did, he and his mother were messaging on Facebook, which was easier to make happen than phone calls.
Jake was a talented hockey player with a chance at going to college on a scholarship. According to Brandon Moore, who served with Mills, “his area of the squad tent in Afghanistan had newspaper clippings stapled all over it from hockey games Jake had played in.”
His mother believes Mills wanted to talk to Jake about going to college instead of enlisting. “He said he could go to college first and enlist after,” she said.
On June 22, 2012, Mills’ platoon was sent to support a battalion conducting clearing operations in Helmand Province’s Sangin District, considered the bloodiest battleground in Afghanistan by British and U.S. Forces; in 2010 the British had transferred operations in Sangin to the Marines.
“We got word that only a few days prior a group of Special Operations guys had gone into the same area and had gotten ambushed and pinned down and had to egress under enemy fire,” wrote Sgt. Brandon Moore, USMC. “Most of us were wondering how a bunch of normal grunts were going to fare if these badass guys couldn’t even do it. Not Gino (Eugene). In his mind, there were more of us and we had bigger guns going with us.”
Mills was stationed on the roof of the compound the platoon was in, manning a grenade launcher. Several hours into the post, a single shot rang out. The bullet hit Mills in the neck.
“Gino made it all the way to Forward Operating Base Eddie where the surgeons lost him on the table,” wrote Moore.
On the other side of the world, hours later, Theresa Karlson was about five minutes away from her house, getting her nails done, when a strange number came up on her phone.
It was the Marines, and they wanted to talk to her — in person. They were already at her house.
“Driving seemed like forever to get to my house,” she said. “I was praying to God he was injured, and they were taking me to Germany or wherever to be with him.”
Jake Mills was at the Navy recruiting office, signing up. He served four years and came home. He never did have that conversation with his brother.
To show your support for service families and honor Theresa Mills Karlson, contact Sullivan County Cares through their Facebook page, buy a ticket to Voices that Care at Newport Opera House Friday night, or join fellow citizens on the bridge in Newport at 2:15 p.m. Friday to welcome Karlson to Newport.
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