NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (July 10, 2009)—Chief Petty Officer Mark L. Kramer has been awarded the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.
Kramer, the former Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) Integrated Program Team coordinator in the Aviation Support Equipment program office, PMA-260, here, spent the last three years volunteering as a St. Mary’s County Hospice and Bereavement Volunteer and a Volunteer Coordinator and Team Lead at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in Charlotte Hall.
“Caring for our fellow veterans and their families in their time of need says a lot about the kind of person that Chief Kramer is,” said Capt. Mike Belcher, Aviation Support Equipment program manager, PMA-260. “Chief Kramer really strived to make the hospice and bereavement process as comfortable as possible for everyone involved. He provided emotional support, administrative guidance and ensured that proper military honors were rendered at each funeral.”
Over the past three years Kramer provided care and comfort to 37 terminally ill veterans.
"Volunteering is giving our time and energy freely and by choice without regard for financial gain. St. Francis of Assisi stated, ‘Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received - only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage’,” said Kramer. ”No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted". I believe those are great virtues to live by!”
“As a volunteer coordinator, Chief Kramer led the Fiscal Year 2008 and FY 2009 Chief Petty Officer inductees and seven volunteer teams of Sailors and Marines in the rehabilitation of resident living quarters and directed the cleaning and sanitizing of medical equipment here. As a result, an additional 127 veterans now have a place to call home,” said Frank Maguire, Volunteer Coordinator, Charlotte Hall Veterans Home.
Kramer is now assigned to the USS Underwood, FFG 36, at Naval Station Mayport, Fla.