A sincere thank you to the Navy

Senior Chief James Pitts, Dave, and Admiral Browne

On Saturday and Admiral from the Navy came to San Jose and Senior Chief Pitts brought him to see David. This was a really neat thing and I am truly sorry that I missed it, but thankfully my Aunt Susan took some pictures of the event. While I am on the subject of the Navy, I have to get on my soapbox here for a minute. In today's media sometimes all we hear about is how the military makes some really bad choices and what bad outcomes that has for us. But for my family they have just been wonderful. Not one time have they let us down at all in the last 3 months. The entire Navy has been supportive and behind us every step of the way. Just the fact that actual people ( Like commanding officers) from David's ship have called Doug and I and have offered their support and condolences is more then I ever imagined. Then when Dave received that awesome video from all of his ship mates, that was very cool. Even more recently he received a challenge coin from the Commador of his Squadron, which we are told is even cooler thing.

Financially they have taken care of all of David's medical bills, David is still earning a paycheck, and the fact that they have helped Doug and I out with a hotel and meals is just incredible. We couldn't have done half of what we have been able to do if it wasn't for the Navy. It would have been very difficult to have stayed by my son's side the last few months if hadn't of been for them. Sure, they haven't paid for everything, but has made life a whole lot easier on all of us and one less thing to worry about.

On top of that they assigned us a personal liaison from the Safe Harbor team, Senior Chief James Pitts. I can't begin to tell you how incredible this man has been. He has come by every single day to check on David and most of the time it has been on his own time and when I have said that he really didn't need to his reply was, "ship mates stick together, ma'am". He has impressed me through and through. The day of David's heart transplant he took the day off and sat in his street clothes with the rest of us and waited the ENTIRE time David was in surgery. My entire family and crew was so grateful for the Navy representation and support on that day and several went up to him and said so. He has been a very special man throughout this experience and has become a good friend to both Dave and I. One that we will hold dear to our hearts forever, thank you Jim for everything. You will never know how much we have truly appreciated everything you have done for us.

So I am stepping off of my soap box now, just keep this story in mind next time you hear something negative on the news about our military. Because for this family they have truly been life saving.