Eastport woman places light in window for troops

EASTPORT – When John Pike Grady returned from World War II more than 55 years ago, a brass band and cheering crowd were waiting for him.

When Vince Lodge and Mike Farrell returned from Vietnam nearly 30 years ago, angry protests greeted them.

“When you came back, the only greeting you had was your own mother and father,” Lodge said. “There was no welcome home, no yellow ribbons or people waving flags. In fact, you kinda kept a low profile.”

Patti Craig doesn’t want U.S. soldiers ever to feel unwelcome in their country again.

So she has begun a movement that she hopes will catch on during the U.S. war with Iraq: a single light glowing in a window.

Craig said this week she knows there are people who oppose the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But she believes people need to set their differences aside.

“This isn’t for or against the war,” she said in an interview. “This is in support of our troops … and for their families and their little children.”

Craig already has a single white light between two small U.S. flags in the window of her Eastport home.

She has a son-in-law who is in New Jersey, waiting to be shipped to Kuwait. Her 5-year-old granddaughter, Brooke Clark, knows the light is for her father. “I’ll say to her, ‘Who is that light for?’ And she says, ‘My dad,'” Craig said.

To spread her message, Craig has enlisted the help of the area Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion units.

Vietnam veteran Farrell agrees with Craig. “We have to get behind our troops and let them know [that] whatever the beliefs are, we got to show them that they have the full support of the American people,” he said.

Craig mounted a similar effort during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when she convinced people across Maine to show their support.

This time, Craig wants to take her message beyond Maine’s borders. So she, Farrell, Grady and Lodge are contacting VFW and Legion posts across the country.

They’re using e-mail, and it also helps that they are members of the two veterans groups. Farrell is District 3 commander of the VFW for Washington County. Grady is commander of the 558 Eastport VFW Post. And Lodge is adjutant of Post 11 American Legion Eastport. Craig is chaplain of the Eastport VFW. She is also a member the American Legion Auxiliary Eastport.

Craig said she hopes people will use the telephone, e-mail and U.S. Postal Service to help spread the word.

“If I could see a white light in every window, it would give me such a good feeling,” she said.