FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. –
More than 200 kids of Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and Pennsylvania National Guard employees toured Fort Indiantown Gap May 15 for Take Your Child to Work Day.
A total of 203 kids and their parents spent the morning touring several sites around Fort Indiantown Gap, including the Training Support Center, Unit Training Equipment Site and Muir Army Heliport, where they had the opportunity to get an up-close look at CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Following lunch, participants heard remarks from Pennsylvania Adjutant General Maj. Gen. John Pippy; Robert Hepner, DMVA deputy director for facilities and engineering; and Keith Graham, DMVA executive director of veterans programs.
“We always talk about ‘One team, one mission,’ but we’re also one big family,” Pippy said. “I really love seeing the smiling faces of the parents, and it’s wonderful for the kids to get to see a little bit of what we do.”
After his remarks, Pippy presented each kid with a souvenir wooden coin and posed for group pictures with them. Each kid also received a certificate of appreciation.
Brooke Bowers of the DMVA Human Resource Office, the event’s organizer, noted that 32 kids participated in the event two years ago, 128 participated last year, and 203 participated this year.
“The kids love it,” Bowers said. “They get to see what their parents do, and a lot of them say they want to enlist or work here.”
Bowers said planning for next year’s event will begin soon, and she’s hoping it will be bigger and better than this year.
Dylan Varner, son of Master Sgt. Anthony Varner of the State Educations and Incentives Office, said he enjoyed the opportunity see a little bit of what goes on at Fort Indiantown Gap.
“It was pretty cool,” Varner said. “There was a lot of different things, like the shooting ranges, the tanks and stuff like that.”
Varner said he was not aware of all that goes on at the installation.
“I didn’t know there was shooting simulators,” he said. “I knew there was shooting ranges, but the shooting simulators were really cool.”