One of the incentives of returning home during the holidays is the chance to dive into your favorite hometown comfort food.
But for the men and women of the U.S. military stationed overseas, that chance is a near impossibility, unless your comfort food happens to be doughnuts from Williams Bakery in Clarksville.
CHRISTMAS WISH
On his first deployment to Iraq, 24-year-old Clarksville native and Providence High School graduate Lt. James A. “Alex” Kenney of the U.S. Army’s 546th maintenance company was asked by his parents what he wanted for Christmas.
“All I could think of was doughnuts from Williams Bakery,” he said in an e-mail.
The treats were a Sunday tradition for Kenney and his family and something he always tries to get when he is in town, according to his mother, Judy Kenney.
One reason the doughnuts may be a family favorite is because of a deeper connection to the store. The founder of the bakery was Alex Kenney’s great-great grandfather, Joseph Williams.
Although the family no longer has any ownership in the bakery, it still has ties to the store, and its current owner, Earnest Polston, was hired by Alex Kenney’s grandfather to work in the bakery.
IDEA BECOMES WHOLE
When Jim Kenney told Polston of Alex’s request, he was more than willing to put a package together to send to Iraq with one caveat: The Kenneys couldn’t pay for the doughnuts.
“I really didn’t think anything of it,” Polston said of offering the doughnuts for free. “They all deserve anything we can give them.”
Polston felt the soldiers were deserving, probably because he knows what it’s like. He served in Vietnam in the Marines, and in 1967, he was away from home, in a war zone, during the holidays.
“Anytime you got a package over there it was a little piece of home,” Polston said.
Alex Kenney reiterated the sentiment.
“Getting anything from home is great,” he said. “Soldiers at war cherish the little things in life that make them feel normal again, especially during the holidays.”
About three dozen doughnuts, a couple dozen Christmas cookies and brownies were boxed up with tubs of icing on the side, making up four boxes of treats for Alex Kenney and the other soldiers in his company.
“We made sure we had enough to feed all of them,” Judy Kenney said.
But the Kenneys weren’t finished packaging treats. Another four boxes of desserts and care packages from friends, relatives and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School — Alex’s former elementary school — made their way overseas.
“It’s their way of saying, ‘thanks,’” Jim Kenney said. “I think everybody just wanted to give them a little piece of home. I think servicemen and women just like to know what they’re doing is appreciated.”
WELL RECEIVED
From the e-mails and pictures Alex Kenney sent back to his family, the evidence of approval is clear.
Alex Kenney got the regular chocolate round doughnut he said is his favorite and he was able to share his hometown comfort food, which was a big hit.
“They thought they were great,” he said. “They all agreed that they were the best doughnuts they ever had.”
Even though the dining facilities in Iraq sometimes have treats such as doughnuts for the soldiers, it didn’t compare to the packages the 546th received, and surprisingly the doughnuts were still fresh.
“You could tell on their faces they were as happy as can be,” Polston said, referring to pictures Alex Kenney sent back of the soldiers eating the doughnuts.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
However, the sweet snacks were not the real treat. The real gift was less tangible, but more powerful.
“Support from home is important,” Alex Kenney said. “We have Internet access in our work areas, which allows us to exchange e-mails with our families every day [and] knowing that my family is doing well makes things easier.”
But the attention and the gifts received is something that Alex Kenney shies away from a bit, maintaining a sense of modesty and appreciating what the rest of the members of the military that are away from home during the holiday season endure.
“I am not special,” Alex Kenney said. “I have done nothing that makes me deserving of special treatment. There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines deployed to various theaters of operation all over the world, many of which are in much more difficult situations than myself.
“None of them should be forgotten this Christmas.”
