Guest Blog Post - Meredith Iler

The following text was e-mailed in by JCOC 75 participant Meredith Iler...

What started out as a gesture of gratitude to one of our heroes for serving our nation, ended up demonstrating just how small our world can be.

JCOC participant Meredith Iler was on a routine tour on base in Honduras when her “Red Team” entered the hospital facility to be briefed on Medivac procedures. Within minutes, Sgt, Stevan Crowder who worked in the facility but was not participating in the JCOC visit recognized her. He came up to her and asked “Are you the one with the foundation to build homes for our severely wounded heroes?” Meredith immediately replied yes since she chairs the HelpingaHero.org’s Wounded Hero Home Program. He then told her that she had given her first class seat to him when he deployed to Honduras a few months earlier.

Meredith remembered him vividly as that was the first time she had ever flown with an entire unit on a flight and had asked the Colonel in charge if it would be OK to give her seat to one of his team. With his permission, she gave her seat to Sgt. Crowder who was at the airport with his beautiful wife and 2 small children as tears streamed down all of their faces at the thought of being separated for the next 6 months.

Thanks to JCOC, the two have been reunited and were able to exchange contact information. They plan to get together in Oklahoma City with their spouses later this summer.

Meredith Iler, JCOC 75
President, Strategic Alliance
Cypress, Texas