Navy, Air Force, Police Task Force delivers Thanksgiving Day happiness to Washington's underprivileged

It is smiles all around as members of the Metropolitan (Washington) Police Department (MPD) Sixth District, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB)-based U.S. Air Force Honor Guard and U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard enjoy time with 9-year-old Jaydan Stancil at the National Rehabilitation Center after the self-proclaimed “Joint Task Force Turkey” surprised Stancil and his family with a complete Thanksgiving Day meal, including a large frozen turkey and dessert. In October, Stancil stood in a courtyard playground at the Mayfair Mansions housing complex on Hayes Street NE in the District with his 14-year-old brother, some friends and their mothers. Suddenly, gunshots rang out. Stancil turned his head toward the gunshots. A bullet struck him above his right eyebrow and lodged in his head. Stancil was caught in the crossfire of a gun battle near his Northeast Washington home. MPD police officer Stephen Giannini was the first official to reach Stancil and immediately recognized the life-threatening injury. “I knew time was against us,” he told reporters. “We weren’t going to let that boy die in that courtyard.” Giannini, assisted by MPD officers Thomas Moore and Shannon Strange, rushed the boy to a nearby trauma center. A doctor told the boy’s family that he had about 30 minutes to live. But Stancil’s fighting spirit proved the doctor wrong, according to his mother, Monique Nichols. JBAB’s community service program often partners with MPD and other community groups to help improve the lives of underprivileged people in JBAB’s neighboring community, located in the District’s Wards 7 and 8. While JBAB’s DOD Police Department and its Fire and Emergency Services Department conducted a coat drive, the JBAB-based Airmen and Sailors conducted a food drive. The coats are being donated to less fortunate people of all ages in Wards 7 and 8. Stancil and his family are among the 200 families that received a Thanksgiving Day meal from the military members’ efforts. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jeremy K. Johnson. Cutline written by Joseph P. Cirone/Released)