Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Family tradition: From jarhead grandpa to pilot-to-be

Bill Meyer was a jarhead, through and through.

His e-mail address dubbed him Sgt. Jarhead and a tattoo on his left arm marked him as a Marine for life.

He was the stereotypical Marine who doted on his only granddaughter and refused to cry in public. The Fourth of July was his favorite holiday and he passed his love of the United States on to his daughter and granddaughter, even after they chose the Air Force over the Marine Corps.

For Kelly Mackey, there was never any question that her grandfather would be the one to give her that first salute after being commissioned as a second lieutenant.

But it was a race against esophageal cancer for Meyer, a Korean War veteran. The cancer was quickly winning.

"It was a no-brainer to me that he would give me my first salute," said Mackey, 22, a 2005 O'Fallon High School graduate. "He was my hero. The idea was that him giving me my first salute was the moment I became a woman, the moment I grew up. Him being part of that transition was amazing to me."

The cancer wasn't going to cooperate with their plans. Doctors gave him nine months to live.

"We did the math and nine months was the beginning of June," Mackey said. "My commissioning ceremony was the beginning of June. He told everybody he was going to be there. That was his goal the entire year, that was his light at the end of the tunnel."

By the time she graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in May, Meyer was already too sick to go far from home. He watched his granddaughter accept her degree via an Internet connection.

Two weeks before Mackey's commissioning ceremony, Meyer's cancer put him in the hospital with a variety of worsening conditions.

"He could not die before giving me my first salute. That could not happen," Mackey said. "I knew that of all things, grandpa was the patriarch of our military family. He is the reason we all have so much patriotism and we were all so eager to serve our country in that way. He was a jarhead through and through. He was the most patriotic person I know. If he died before he gave me my first salute he would never forgive himself, I think."

Mackey's parents, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Cindy Mackey and retired Air Force Col. Glenn Mackey, both of O'Fallon, worked to quickly put together a commissioning ceremony that Meyer could attend.

Cindy Mackey read the oath. Glenn Mackey was unable to attend the ceremony but was there via a Skype connection set up in Meyer's California hospital room. He said the prayer before the ceremony.

"Grandpa said I'd better not cry because if I cried, he'd cry, and he was a Marine," Kelly Mackey said. "Marines don't cry."

From a center seat in his hospital bed, Meyer watched as his only granddaughter became an Air Force officer. He proudly saluted her for the first time.

Military tradition dictates the new officer pay for his or her first salute.

"You pay for it from someone who helped you get where you are today and then you earn the rest," Kelly Mackey said. "What better person to give it to me than my grandfather, the one who has always supported me. He sat up tall in his hospital bed and as strong looking as he could possibly look, he gave me the most amazing salute anyone could possibly give me. It felt like no one else was in the room. It felt like it was just the two of us and it is something I will never, ever forget."

Kelly Mackey paid her grandfather for her salute with a silver dollar commemorating the 230th anniversary of the Marine Corps.

"You could see his smile as Kelly gave him the coin. He was very, very proud of her," said Cindy Mackey, Kelly's mother and Meyer's daughter. "When he was diagnosed with this cancer he wrote a bucket list, basically. And he said he wanted to see Kelly graduate and he wanted to see her commissioned. He told her 'Kelly, I don't care if the emergency medical team has to take me there on a stretcher, I will be there for your commissioning.'"

Meyer, 79, died on June 3, less than three days after his granddaughter's first and his final salute.

Kelly and her mother were with Meyer early that morning. While they sat with him they watched a lightning storm whip through the area.

"Lightning is very, very rare in that part of California," Kelly Mackey said. "As soon as the lightning was done we looked over at grandpa and we watched him take his last breath. And I thought to myself, 'That's a true Marine, going out with a bang. Leave it to a Marine to enter Heaven like that.'"

Kelly Mackey reports for active duty Dec. 3 at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Okla., where she will begin training to become a pilot.

"I couldn't be more proud to be his granddaughter," she said. "He really wanted to be there to see me get my wings and become a pilot and now he has the best seat in the house. He'll be there when I get my wings."