As the 75 Christmas trees made the journey from a Long Island nursery to Iraq, the holiday spirit was once more proving able to make the seemingly impossible happen.
Impossible being the apparent answer when a woman came into Dee's Nursery in Oceanside last month asking if there was some way to send a Christmas tree to her son in Iraq. The proprietor, Joe Dee, made various inquiries, but nobody seemed to have a solution.
"We just didn't know how to do it," Dee recalls.
Then, a regular customer named Jim Adelis stopped in. Adelis has a 20-year-old son in Iraq. Jim Adelis Jr. serves as a machine gunner on convoys.
"His truck hit a roadside bomb six months ago," the senior Adelis says. "He got banged up a little bit, but not really bad."
The senior Adelis was now asked by Dee if he had any ideas about sending Christmas trees to that faraway war zone.
"He said, 'It'd be nice to get trees to the troops over there. I'd like to donate 75 trees,'" Adelis recalls.
Adelis responded as an upstanding son of Bensonhurst.
"The old Brooklyn ethic: 'Let me see what I can do ...'" Adelis says.
Adelis figured he first had to get the Army's approval. He telephoned Army Major. Gen. Richard Colt, commander of the 77th Regional Readiness Command at Fort Totten in Queens.
"He said, 'That's great! How are we going to do it?'" Adelis recalls.
Adelis has been in the security business at Kennedy Airport for three decades, and his next call was to DHL shipping. The company immediately offered to provide free transport all the way to the younger Adelis' base, Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq.
Of course, they could hardly send trees without decorations. Lt. Dan Carbonaro and Officer Mike DeFilippis of the Port Authority kicked off the fund-raising with a collection among fellow cops. The Port Authority donated Christmas lights that had been in saddest storage for three years.
"The lights for the trees at the World Trade Center," the senior Adelis says.
Nassau County cops joined in providing a police escort to the 48-foot DHL truck that departed Dee's nursery on the morning of Nov. 19. The job had particular meaning for the truck's driver, Chris Johncharles, who has a daughter serving in Iraq.
A DHL helicopter flew as an added escort and touched down as Johncharles wheeled the load of 75 boxed trees to the company's gateway at Kennedy Airport. The pilot stepped onto the tarmac wearing a Santa suit.
"I thought it was quite fitting to see Santa Claus there," Adelis says.
The boxes were shrink-wrapped onto pallets and hoisted aboard a DC-8 plane for a flight to Bahrain. The trees were flown from there to Baghdad and arrived by truck at Camp Anaconda on Nov. 22. The entire journey had gone without the slightest hitch.
"Divine intervention," Adelis says. "That's the only way I can explain it."
Adelis' son reported back to his father how another soldier had responded upon seeing one of the boxed trees.
"One guy hugged the box and buried his face in the box and said, 'Oh, this smells just like home!'" the senior Adelis says.
Such responses inspired Adelis and Dee to organize a second shipment. Dee again chose the trees that have the strongest Christmas smell.
"Balsam fir from the State of Maine," Dee says.
Tomorrow morning, Johncharles will drive a DHL truck from Dee's nursery to Kennedy Airport, delivering 50 trees, including a 20-footer for the center of Camp Anaconda. The Port Authority cops kicked in again, along with various businesses and individuals. The shipment will include 350 sets of lights, ornaments, garlands, as well as a Santa suit in case one of the soldiers is inspired to play St. Nick.
"We also have menorahs going over for the Jewish kids," Adelis says.
Adelis' son will still be in Iraq at Christmas, but, thanks to some true holiday magic, he was able to send back a photo of himself beside a tree that smells like home.
"Talk about Christmas miracles ..." the senior Adelis says.
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