Bob Johnson
OCTOBER 2006 WINNER

During the Holiday season two years ago, Bob Johnson was thinking about how long people in the military are away from their families for often more than a year.

He couldn’t imagine being away from his 2 ½-year-old son, Bobby, for more than a couple weeks, let alone more than a year. “That would drive me crazy if I wasn’t able to see him for months on end. That would be impossible to handle.”

Bob started Operation Vacation. Its purpose? To carry out “missions of gratitude.” Once a month, Bob organizes an all-expense-paid three-day vacation for military families in his town of Glenwood Springs. Company officers choose an outstanding soldier with a family who has either just returned form active duty or is about to be deployed “It’s not pro war anti-war, pro-political, ant-political. It’s strictly for the soldiers and their families…and it’s fun,” Bob said.

Glenwood businesses from rafting companies to restaurants to spas donate their services to the family. “I got turned down by a few, but not many people turned me down when I told them it was for the soldiers. They roll out the red carpet for them.”

Bob greets each family at the hotel when they arrive. He then gives them all their freebie coupons and his cell phone number if they need anything. After that, Bob leaves the families to do as much or as little they want to do.

In September, Sergeant Jay Johnson and his wife and four children were the lucky recipients of a trip to Glenwood. Jey returned from Irag in March. He is recovering from a hand injury after being hit with shrapnel. “It’s hard to get all of us together to do one like concentrated vacation you might say. This really gave us a chance to do that,” Jey said. This was his family’s first real vacation. They had only visited relatives before their long-weekend in Glenwood.

The Johnson family paraglided, went fly fishing, swam in the hot springs pools, visited the spa, and took the tram to the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. His 11-year-old daughter, Kirstin summed up the weekend. “It was awesome. It’s been rad.”

Jay will head back to Iraq sometime in the next year. “The memories. I have will go with me,” Jey said.

“They do so much for us, is just a little bit we can do back for them,” Bob said.