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Auto dealer helps S.D. soldiers come home

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A Sioux Falls auto dealer is helping 185 National Guard soldiers come home to South Dakota for the holidays.

Billion Automotive is covering half the cost of the $80,000 needed to charter a plane to bring the 147th Field Artillery Unit, B Battery home from training.

The 185 soldiers will spend four days with their families over the Christmas holiday.

“They have a break in their training schedule. It was just a question of how to get them home,” said Lt. Col. John Holter, who recently left command of the unit.

The 147th has spent two months training in Mississippi for an upcoming yearlong deployment to Iraq.

Car dealer Dave Billion said he heard about the fundraising campaign and knew bake sales weren’t going to cover much of the cost.

“It’s a pretty expensive proposition to bring ‘em home,” he said. “The timing around Christmas and knowing people that have family members — we just felt it was a way for our Billion Automotive family to say thanks to the troops and their families.”

Georgia Holt said fundraisers will lessen, if not totally remove, the financial burden of allowing her sons, Ty and Bret Holt, to eat oyster stew in Mitchell this Christmas.

Holt said people are pitching in from across the state with penny challenges, spaghetti feeds, silent auctions, rummage sales and bake sales.

“It’s always very important on holidays like Christmas to be with family. That’s what the holidays are about,” she said.

The Guard soldiers were sent to Camp Shelby, Miss., in October to train, and expect to leave for Iraq in late December or early January. Convoy security is their mission.

Holter said the soldiers were fortunate to have attracted the attention of a man with the means and desire to make the trip home happen.

“To get to see your family at Christmas right before you leave, it means the world to those guys,” he said.