A group of retired military veterans make it a point to get together every year. The group started small but has grown over the last 15 years. I spoke with the ‘Balldroppers’ to hear how their friendship has stayed strong over the years.
“We all had issues coming back from deployment,” said Thomas Brooks, Balldroppers scorekeeper. “So that would get us out of the house. Golf kept its balance. Golf got us talking, releasing some of that stress, and it just grew from there.”
The Balldroppers started in 2010. The group originally started with ten members, but it has now grown to forty. The one thing they all have in common is serving time together in the military.
“We all met at different times during our military careers,” said Brooks. “We either worked for one of the people in the group, or we worked with each other in a group. It just depends on, rank and pay grade at the time, but we do represent different branches of service. We have Marine, Air Force, Army from all different branches where we may have crossed each other’s paths during our deployments. But it was originally ten of us who got together to play. We made it a thing that each year we would bring one additional person in the group.”
The group meets every year the week before Father’s Day. All the members live in different states and they travel all over the country to try out different golf courses. This year they chose the Highlands in Harbor Springs.
“Well, we wanted to get away from the heat because we normally play around 100 to 110 degrees in the summertime,” said Horace Collier, Balldroppers Leader. So, we wanted to get out of the heat. And this works.
“I have my Alabama crew, which is basically Alabama, Georgia, the Kentucky group, which is about 12 of them,” said Collier. “I have the DMV group, which is the combination of Maryland, D.C. and Indianapolis, Indiana. And then my last group is a Georgia. Well, here’s my Texas guys, and that’s where I retired from. So, the majority are out of Killeen, Texas.”
Even with the distance, they keep each other close. By checking in with one another because they all have a deep understanding on how serving in the military can affect life afterwards.
“In the mere fact that I can say things to my wife that I can’t say to Kevin here, and he understands the nuance of what I’m saying,” said Brooks. “As opposed to not my wife understood that was and is just a check and balance of each other.”
The group does zoom calls about once a month and whenever they are in each other’s towns they reach out to play a round of golf.
“It’ll just give them some, something to do,” said Collier. “It’s kind of like therapy, my group therapy. Because, you know, we all kind of expands and just helps us get through today and have a golf trip once a year is just freedom.”
This year they are creating more memories and deeper bonds, treating new members like they have been there for years.
“This trip, there is a little conversation with one of the new guys going after a seasoned member,” said Collier. “It was getting very competitive. One of the things he said was he could beat you by ten strokes. We knew that couldn’t happen. And it was a large bet of 100 bucks. And he didn’t even beat him on his raw score head to head. That was pretty funny. “
At the end of their week they host a banquet. This year was the 15th year. They celebrated by creating a new badge that honors the original 10 members. They also announced the winner of their two-man championship. The trophy is in honor of one the original ten members that they lost.
“A lot of fun. Do whatever the group wants to do. Special guy,” said Horace. “So, we bring members in and some of them go out. What is that unique about the group is we do two-man championships for one of our members that passed away. Russell Hunt, he passed away about six, seven years ago. We honor him by those trophies are presented on behalf of him is as his name because he was one of our legacy guys.”
They all agree that by having this time together. They become better people and have become more than friends, they are family.
“Is a bunch of guys getting together from different backgrounds,” said Horace. “For a week, putting their differences, opinions aside and understanding. It’s all about golf having fun.”
“It was important for the initial eight of us to do this because we all enjoyed playing golf together when we were in Texas,” said Collier. “And then we brought out our wives together was like, hey, this is what we want to do. And they were all for it. So, we continued to do it, and we just thought that it made us better. It helped with some of that anxiety that we had coming back from deployment.”
Brooks suggests for any Veteran looking for community to put themselves out there because they need to lean on each other.
“If I can suggest anything to a veteran,” said Brooks. “Get out and find another veteran group of any sort. Another thing that’s picking up is pickleball. Pickleball is a big thing for veterans in our area to join some type of club, get out, help another veteran like. And I guarantee you that reward will come back to you.”