Les OzawaThe 25-foot white pine is raised to its position at the Towne Center courtyard.
Staff of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation and High Desert Support Services took delivery of a 25-foot, white pine tree and focused was on how to stand it up at the Fort Irwin Town Center in late November.
Once the tree was set up, Gold Star Dad Rick Creed came from Rancho Cucamonga to take it to the next level. Like the past two years, Creed worked with FMWR’s Janet Ford and other staff members to dress the tree with Christmas lights and prepare it for a light and sound show premiering on Dec. 12.
Creed, a sound and light show specialist, promises an even grander show than last year, taking ideas from a YouTube video of a Christmas tree in Guatemala City.
How did Creed get to Fort Irwin? The Gold Star Father said he met former Fort Irwin garrison commander Col. Kurt Pinkerton in Victorville four years ago. Creed then learned that his son, Cpl. Matthew Creed, had worked briefly for Pinkerton in 2006, when he served as a gunner on a security detachment for battalion leaders. Pinkerton, then a battalion commander for the 11th ACR, was in Baghdad, when Creed’s brigade was in the process of handing off its mission to the 11th ACR.
Creed’s son didn’t make it home for Christmas that year. He was killed by a sniper bullet on Oct. 22, 2006.
“I do the tree lighting to honor my son, to give back to the military,” Creed said.