Tree farm shows Semper Fi spirit

AMISSVILLE — “Timber,” yells Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Ryan Hale as a six-foot Douglas fir falls to the ground.
This isn’t a new Marine training exercise, it’s the annual scene at Glengary Tree Farm in Amissville.

For nearly 20 years, Tom O’Halloran and his wife, Donna, have provided Marines at Quantico with Christmas trees free of charge, a plan devised while Tom’s niece Mary Ruth Bracken was stationed at the base with her husband James.

“My niece married a Marine and he was stationed in Quantico, right out of college,” Tom recalled. “She worked for family services down there. She was talking to me about how some of the Marines were really struggling at Christmas time. I got hold of a lady down at family services, told her who I was and what I wanted to do. She said they’d take a look.”

So began a magical relationship, with O’Halloran and his family providing the Marines with Christmas memories, and the Marines giving the O’Hallorans the gift of smiles.

“The farm is here to support E5 and below families that are having some type of hardship at Christmas,” said Kimberley Jordan, community support representative for Marine Corps Community Services.

“The O’Halloran tree farm has graciously stepped in and donated trees for our needy families. These are families that can’t even possibly afford the tree. This is an opportunity for a Marine and their families to be able to have a tree and enjoy the Christmas season.”

The first year, Glengarry Tree Farm donated nearly 50 trees, and at one point the program grew so much they were giving out 120 trees a year. This year, the need was a little less, down to about 30 trees, but the O’Hallorans are still excited to be helping.

“They seem to be enthusiastic,” Tom said. “A couple of years ago I was talking to a lady on the phone about the program and a young man came into the shop. I hung up the phone, and he said, ‘I always wondered where those trees came from.’ He said they were really struggling at the time and it brightened things up for him. That made my day.”

According to Jordan, the Marines’ days are made when the volunteers roll into camp with the trees in tow.

“This is our way of saying thank you and we appreciate what you do for us,” Jordan said.

Tom knows what it means to have a little reminder of home during the holidays. He served four years in the Air Force, many of them overseas in Vietnam and the Phillipines. He remembers how tough it was being away from family during this time of year.

“You can’t describe it,” Tom said. “It’s probably a little different now because they do have better communications with their family. Back then, the only thing I had was letters. They were sporadic at best.
“Out where we were, you didn’t go out to the mailbox every day, it was a bag dropped out of a helicopter. That’s the time you think about family, you think about home, you think about everything you missed.”

But thanks to the O’Hallorans and the Marine’s Adopt a Family program, these soldiers and their families won’t miss that Christmas feeling.

“We’re here to take care of the Marines first and foremost, and it just brings joy when they see presents, the trees, and the goodies,” Jordan said. “In their mind, they can’t believe someone takes the time to come out and cater to them.”

For the O’Hallorans, it’s just second nature to give back to the troops. After starting the Christmas tree farm in 1974, and harvesting their first trees in 1987, the family has been blessed with good fortune, including a recent conservation easement that will ensure the farm stays protected for years to come.

Once producing 63,000 trees, but now down to about 38,000, Tom and Donna still don’t mind making a simple donation at Christmas time.

“When we first started doing it, Tom would cut the trees and they would load them from the field, and they’re like kids in a candy shop,” Donna said.

Thursday afternoon, Lance Cpl. Hale and Sgt. Douglas Pierson, the two Marine volunteers helping cut the trees, were exhibiting some of that fun.

“We should get a Charlie Brown tree for the motor group,” Pierson said with a mischievous grin as he went looking for the next perfect tree.