News : Quilts of Valor makes presentation to Master Sergeant Whelan

Master Sergeant Robert "Bob" Whelan presented with a Quilt of Valor in appreciation of his service

Quilts of Valor has one mission, "to cover Service Members and Veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor." The organization is responsible for presenting 271,408 quilts to service members who have been touched by war. Founder, Catherine Roberts, was a Blue Star Mother and created a means to honor as well as comfort those who have been in harm's way.

While her son was in the service, she wanted him to know that someone cared about him; she wanted to tell other Service Members that she cared about them. Quilts of Valor began as way to express gratitude for today's all-volunteer, modern military. The very first quilt was presented was to a soldier at Bethesda, Maryland in 2003 to a soldier who had been injured.

The organization states, "We believe that Valor in a volunteer military is giving up your rights to freedom for a term of service in order to ensure the safety of our nation and population. Courage is facing an unknown future, but moving forward anyway."

At each Quilts of Valor presentation, the presenter, Elaine Basset explains a little bit about the history of the organization and the purpose of the QOV program, and how each of the quilts is prepared. She explains that the purpose of QOV is to wrap each military person, especially those who have been touched by battle in a comforting quilt.

The quilts are created at the hands of several people. The materials selected, and carefully sewn together, and then when the quilt is ready, it is sent off to another volunteer who will use a long-arm sewing machine to quilt the layers together. Often it is then sent to another person who will sew binding around the edges of the quilt and affix a label to the quilt stating what number the quilt is from the local organization, in this case, Master Sergeant Robert Whelan's quilt is #701 and it was prepared by Rita Moore who does all of the sewing except for the long arm quilting part of it.

Each quilt is presented along with a certificate that reads, "The Quilts of Valor Foundation wishes to recognize you for your service to our nation. We consider it a privilege to honor you. Though we may never know the depth of your sacrifice and service to protect and defend the United States of America. As a gesture of gratitude from a grateful nation, we award you this Quilt of Valor." It is also accompanied by a handwritten note of thanks from an organization member.

Master Sergeant Robert Whelan is currently serving in the Army Reserves. A career military man, Whelan had served six times overseas serving in Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan in 2002, Iraq in 2003 and 2008, then back to Afghanistan in 2011. In 2017 he also worked in Kabul for the Department of State, In 2020 he was first sergeant in Kuwait with teams in Afghanistan and Saudia Arabia. So far, Whelan has served for 24 years in the Army/Army Reserves and 16 1/2 of those years he's been on active duty.

Vinton has always been home to Bob and Heidi. Heidi joked that she told Bob that she wouldn't marry him until he was out of the military. 23 years and 4 children later, she said, "and here we are!" She serves alongside Bob here in Vinton being his support.

Bob shared that he had read a book entitled, "The Things that we Carry," as part of a course that he was taking. He spoke about the things that he has carried with him. They included a booklet that was made which contains pictures of each of his family members, as well as a St. Michael medallion, that had been blessed by a local Catholic priest. The medallion is symbolic of the archangel Michael who is known in the Bible as the angel that fights against evil and wins. There is a prayer that goes with the medallion, which asks the angel to defend in battle, and to protect against wickedness. The medallion had been carried in all but the last two tours, but instead had been given to his daughter, who was wearing it at the quilt ceremony.

The last time that he served as an infantryman, he worked with a transportation company in Kuwait which is the main hub. He said with Iran becoming more aggressive, they can hit Kuwait very easily, so they are trying to push all of the equipment into Saudi Arabia. While Iran can hit Saudi Arabia, the country there has its own military, so Iran probably wouldn't want to start anything there, Whelan believes. He said moving into Saudia Arabia gives the military another 2 or 3 minutes to shoot down any missiles from Iran. He said he also had guys tearing down in Afghanistan and moving out of here in the drawdown.

He talked about an experience that he had while in Kuwait when he heard the sirens go off, something that didn't usually happen while he was there. He found out that there was a missile attack by the insurgents that are backed by Iran. The insurgents had shot missiles in the direction of Kuwait. Fortunately, the missiles didn't make it to the target, they were too small and ran out of fuel. One was shot down and one landed in southern Kuwait. Of course, he said there were people afraid. Being a military guy he said he wouldn't be afraid unless one of the Patriot Missiles responds, because those are designed to shoot those missiles down. He said unless the Patriot Missile gets excited, there's no need to worry.

Whelan will shortly be taking off to the most southern part of the United States, Fort Bliss, Texas. Located near El Paso along the southern border, he will be stationed and serving there for about a year. He said as he prepares to leave his family, he knows that they are being taken care of by the Vinton community and that sets his mind at ease.