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Sabers see the force

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Eugene Taylor
  • Det. 9 AFNEWS
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany --  Living on a fighter base, you get used to the sounds of jets overhead. But this weekend, residents heard military hardware of a different kind - lightsabers clashing and blasters firing. All the noise was from a convention celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the first Star Wars movie at the Brick House Community Center.

The day-long celebration offered something for everyone with starship battles, computer gaming, displays of memorabilia and a costume contest. But the highlight of the event was a visit from five German members of the 501st Imperial Legion, a Star Wars charity organization that showed off seven movie-accurate costumes - a stormtrooper, a scout trooper, two snowtroopers, an Imperial Officer, the bounty hunter, Boba Fett and Darth Vader.

"These guys are awesome. They're official," said Senior Airman Jarrod Garceau, 52nd Medical Operations Squadron, who coordinated the convention. "These guys are signed off by George Lucas himself to do these kinds of events. So, these are not amateurs. These are professionals."

Each 501st Legion member drove at least 150 miles to Spangdahlem, coming from as far away as Aachen and Wiesbaden to attend the celebration.

"We do this for the children," said Hubert Siebertz, the German Membership Liaison for the 501st Legion. "We not only do costuming, this is only the first part of being a 501st Legion member. The second part is charity we do for children."

During the afternoon, more than 350 Star Wars fans wandered through the Brick House. They watched Star Wars movies, compared stories and had their pictures taken with Darth Vader and other assorted movie villains that have made the Star Wars movies an enduring part of our culture. In the end, one can only quote Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and say "The Force will be with you ... always."
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