- The writer and his wife live in LA and both work for
Uncle Sam.
-
- Dear Friends and Family, I hope that you will spare
me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on
Monday, October 27. I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and
was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International
Airport was closed on Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected
air traffic control. Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled
and I wound up spending a night in Baltimore. My story begins the next
day.
-
- When I went to check in at the United counter Monday
morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young and
all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from earlier,
when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a
visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to
what train terminals were like in World War II. Many people were stopping
the troops to talk to them, asking them questions in the Starbucks line
or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the flights
that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in Baltimore
and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people
in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers
a bad time.
-
- By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed
several hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up
their seats and take another flight. They weren't getting many takers.
Finally, a United spokeswoman got on the PA and said this, "Folks.
As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area. They
only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get them where they need
to go without spending any more time in an airport then they have to.
We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we
can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers
to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you and we
love you."
-
- At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary
people, a cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heartfelt
applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them
just looked at their boots. Many of us were wiping away tears. And, yes,
people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went to
Denver on that flight. That little moment made me proud to be an American,
and also told me why we will win this war. If you want to send my little
story on to your friends and family, feel free. This is not some urban
legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it happen.
-
- Note - The author's name is being withheld because we
don't know if he would want it posted. We do know he would like us all
to read his story. -ed
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