The following letter was sent to friends and family of the Ball family, which The Malibu Times was authorized to reprint.
We hope your Thanksgiving holiday was enjoyable. For us it was a day of special thanks as we had family joining us from Oregon and Nebraska and all of us were happy to have Nathan be there. We were thankful that he had come home safe from his deployment in Afghanistan and grateful that he could be there with family.
As it turns out, it was a very special day for Nathan. Glenn Fulton, who is married to Karin’s Aunt Elsje, presented Nathan with an original painting by a Marine artist who was at Iwo Jima and observed the flag raising during the battle. Glenn fought in Korea as a Marine and this very special gift to Nathan touched us all. But the thanks and the giving were not yet done for this special day.
After dinner, Nathan disappeared for about a half an hour and then rejoined us at the dinner table. He called Glenn up to the head of the table and explained that while deployed in Afghanistan, American troops are not allowed to fly the American flag because it is viewed as a symbol of occupation. Nathan then further explained that this past Sept. 11, his company made an exception to the rule and flew 15 American flags over his outpost at Camp Cafereta to commemorate that sad day nine years ago. Nathan received one. Nathan then proceeded to give Glenn his 9/11 flag as a token of friendship from one Marine generation to another.
Needless to say, this Thanksgiving ended up to be one of the most special for all of us there.
Juliana, Nathan, Genevieve, Karin and Mark Ball