When James Branson left for his first deployment, fellow firefighters threw the U.S. Navy corpsman the best party he’d ever seen — only matched by the party marking his return.
The department flew a blue star flag and had their uniform T-shirts made in military green. Firefighters wore the shirts for Memorial Day and Veterans Day while Branson was overseas and also sold some to raise money, which they used to send him care packages. They did everything possible to stay in touch and offered any help to his wife during his year-long tour in Jordan last year.
“In general fire departments and police departments are really supportive of their (military) reserve or National Guard members, but I’d say Westport — from the chief down — was just unbelievably supportive,” Branson said. “They were probably the best support system that my wife had while I was gone.”