For the last 39 years, Susan Davis International has had the opportunity to not only aid the men and women of our Nation’s armed forces, but to identify ourselves as the leader in military communications. Through museums, memorials, and moments of remembrance, SDI has built a rich history of excellence with the military. This month SDI celebrates not only the launch of a new website, but that rich history and the observance of Military Appreciation Month.
What makes SDI truly unique is passion. The team at SDI has a driving passion for their clients, and their missions, that push them to go above and beyond and rise to any occasion. Throughout the month we will be sharing the stories of their military passions. We hope that their stories will inspire you to share your own.
Tom Davis: Remembering Memorial Day
In a small town, the kind of town where doors were never locked, seen through the eyes of the children, Memorial Day was an exciting experience. The usually predictable, measured pace of life abruptly changed. The quiet of the early morning hours quickly gave way to the stirring of a community coming to life. Far off came the sound of single trombone, soon to be joined by all of its neighbors in the brass section of the high school band, tuning up before marching across town to the steady beat of the bass drum.
Click HERE to read Tom’s full story.
Dan Honors Our Nation’s Military Past By Helping Preserve It
In the winters of the Revolutionary War, early Americans could track the movements of the Continental Army by the trail of blood the Soldiers’ chapped, uncovered feet left in the snow.
General George Washington’s urgent supply requests during the war were not for tactical material to give him the edge over the British, they were for survival: food, blankets, clothes. He once wrote that the Army was nearing the inevitable choice to dissolve, disperse, or starve.
Click HERE to read Dan’s full story.
Nina Foster honors LCDR Jean Marie Sullivan
LCDR Jean Marie Sullivan is the first military person that I’ve ever actually met. I was quick to define anyone in a uniform. Feeling uncomfortable and intimidated, I thought to myself, they must be very stuffy. After meeting her, everything changed.
Jean Marie heads the production of the Joint Women’s Leadership Symposium for the Sea Service Leadership Association and was a longstanding client of SDI’s. I vividly remember meeting her for the first time.
Click HERE to read Nina’s full story.
David Remembers His Grandfather as More Than Just a Good American
My grandfather, Jerome “Jerry” Bahr, was, by profession, a fiction writer. His first book of short stories, All Good Americans, published by Scribner’s and Sons, had the honor of receiving a preface by a rather well-known colleague of his, Ernest Hemingway. (This was the only preface Hemingway wrote for an American short story writer.)
Click HERE to read David’s full story.
Diana Moon Remembers Her Grandfather’s WWII Service
Every Memorial Day, my mom proudly hangs an American flag outside of her house. It floats in the breeze with the other flags her neighbors display to celebrate the holiday, but she tells me it holds a different meaning to her. It is the flag she received on behalf of the U.S. Navy when her father passed away in 1996. I always knew growing up that my grandfather, Henry “Hank” Haligowski, served in the Navy during World War II, and was stationed in the Pacific during the war with Japan. But I never fully understood his story until I began my own work with the military, service members and military organizations.
Click HERE to read Diana’s full story.
Nicole Tieman – Sergeant Nicholas Tieman of the 82nd Airborne Division
Wrapped in a blanket, I sat staring out my bedroom window, watching fat snowflakes slowly fall. My eyelids were heavy from exhaustion but I was determined to stay awake. It was Thursday and Nick told me he’d try to call that week- I couldn’t fall asleep in case he did.
It had been one month since he deployed to Kandahar; two since we married. I hadn’t spoken with him since the day he left Wisconsin for Fort Bragg, but I had a feeling I’d hear from him that night.
Click HERE to read Nicole’s full story.