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Military family memories pressed together in a dining room table

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Its biggest job of the year is to hold the holiday meals that will be placed on it. The 2009 holiday season brings with it the first test of my craftsmanship in constructing something for our dining experience -- our family dining room table.

I recently finished building this table from bits and pieces of wood I've had hanging around the house through my many tours of duty for the Air Force. The most important pieces, I believe, are on the table top now covered in many layers of clear coating.

So how did this table come about? It's actually quite simple. Earlier this year, my family and I moved from New Jersey to Scott AFB. We left a home where we didn't have a need for a dining table because the house was too small. However, when we got to Illinois, our house here had a lot more space to include a dining room.

Faced with the prospect of finally having a dining room, my wife Bobbi came up with a great idea. She said, "How about you build us a table out of that old wood we have in the garage?" And so the project began.

In the garage I had pieces of faded, gray wood planks that I've used for shelves for a number of years. In determining how the table would be built, I took the wood planks and placed them in a rectangular shape on the garage floor of what would eventually form the table top.

Standing back, I looked at those old planks and had a flush of memories.

I first looked at a pair of planks -- now forming an edge of the table -- that I remember getting from a friend when my family and I were stationed at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, for most of the 1990s. The boards came from an old house my friend was refinishing. I found out later they were recycled from old munitions crates used at the base in the 1960s.

Seeing the boards reminded me so much of my tour in Idaho. While there, my daughter Macy and son Jackson were born and my daughter Holly graduated from high school. My daughter Ivy had her first day of school there. That assignment was where my family grew to what it is today, and, it's where my wife and I grew to be life-long companions as we etched out our first years of marriage.

Idaho is also where Holly went from being my stepdaughter to my daughter. She helped me grow into being a better dad. It's where I was when my first granddaughter was born...and the list goes on. Those Idaho memories are memories I wouldn't trade for anything.

Moving to middle plank of the table, I remember getting that long piece of barn wood from my wife's sister, Lisa Habersetzer, in Wisconsin. At the time, we were stationed at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., and we made a trip to visit Lisa during the holidays.

Throughout my military career, Lisa has been very close to our family for as long as we've been a family. She has always kept us up on the latest news from the homefront -- no matter where we've been in the world -- through "chatty" letters, e-mails and phone calls. To me, she's been more than extended family -- she's been part of the family. She's been an awesome aunt and friend to all of my children and a support channel for my wife whenever she's needed it. Having memories of her place with us through this table is a fitting tribute to her support of our military family.

On the opposite edge of the table top are two very wide, old growth white pine boards. We picked up the boards in the city of Negaunee in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, or U.P. The U.P. is where my wife and I grew up, but that is only a small reason why the boards are special.

Ten years ago, my wife and I heard from a daughter she gave up for adoption long before she knew me -- Chrystal Chartier. Over the past decade, we've met with Chrystal fairly often and she has found a place in our family that is very special. The two white pine boards, that are now a part of the table, we got from her at a home she was renovating in Negaunee about five years ago.

A lot has changed for Chrystal and for us since we got the boards. She's now married -- she's Chrystal Chartier-Wittenmyer now, lives in a different state, and is expecting her first child very soon. The white pine boards are a forever reminder of how a family can fully come together as Chrystal has made our family complete.

The rest of the wood that makes up the table is new wood I had to buy, but that's no problem. As time goes on, the whole table will be a reminder of our family's time in Illinois. The table ended up being 7 feet long by 3 feet wide.

Six people can comfortably sit around the sides of the table and if you want to get cozy -- you could squeeze in another four people. It's just the right size for our growing family of the future and I look forward to many, many holiday meals on those old planks.

The table is like a scrapbook. To me, it represents the memories of why I go about doing what I do every day as an Airman and as a husband, father and grandfather -- it represents my family and my military family history.

This holiday season, I wish the best to all my fellow military members and their families. I hope you all have something, like a table, that gives you that special reminder of how special a family can be.