By Don Rush

On June 1, the Oxford High School Varsity Baseball team held their annual Military Appreciation game honoring the great service and sacrifice of our military men and women. This year they also honored and presented a special gift to the families of the four children whose lives were taken on November 30, Hana St. Juliana, Justin Shilling, Tate Mrye, and Madisyn Baldwin.

“The idea from this game came about many years ago. This is our 5th military appreciation game” Wildcat coach Dave Herrick said. “We typically always host the military appreciation game the Friday of Memorial Day weekend versus Detroit Country Day. The game was scheduled again this season but unfortunately was rained out. The idea to honor the families from the tragedy at OHS came about in January of this year. Once we heard four flags were flown on a mission to honor Madisyn, Tate, Justin, and Hana we knew we wanted to include this in the military game.”

It was a double-header afternoon against Troy High School. The teams split the bill with Oxford winning the first game, 4-1 but dropping the second game, 6-0.

The special afternoon started with military servicemen landing a Blackhawk helicopter at an adjacent practice field for guests to visit, take photos with and even climb into. The game began with an Honor Guard presenting colors and the singing of the national anthem by OHS senior Ava Swiss. Then each of the four families were presented with a shadow box containing a certificate from the U.S. Army’s Tank-

Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) an honorary coin, and an American flag which was flown on January 14, 2022, by the 506th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, abroad a KC-135T StratoTanker. They were part of a refueling mission for United States and Coalition aircraft as a deterrent to near peer adversaries in the Pacific theater.

Siblings of the four fallen students each threw a first pitch to honor their brother or sister. Payton Baldwin threw first pitch to honor her sister Madisyn: Trent and Ty Myre threw first pitch to honor their brother Tate; Nathan Shilling threw first pitch to honor his brother Justin and Noa St. Juliana threw first pitch to honor his sister Hana.

The logistics to make the day happen was up to Coach Herrick and Coach Aaron Carpenter. “ We had many hurdles to overcome with this game. The most obvious was getting lucky with a nice day to play a game on. Spring weather is always so unpredictable,” Herrick said. “We were fortunate to be able to coordinate the event with the Michigan National Guard to have the Blackhawk come to the event. This took a lot of pre-planning and paperwork. Oakland County Sheriffs and Oxford Fire/EMS both had to be on site and to secure the area so the Blackhawk could land and takeoff. The last big hurdle was contacting at working with the families of Madisyn, Tate, Justin, and Hana. Coach Carpenter did an amazing job working with the families. “

Local Oxford resident Jarrit White, the 191st aircraft maintenance squadron commander, was responsible for having the flags flown while he was deployed. Oxford residents and Wildcat supporters Shannon Groedl and Amy Thomas covered the cost of the custom-made shadow boxes for the four families. The commander’s coin which is in the middle of each box is from TACOM along with the condolence letter from TACOM Executive Director.