OT: Patriotic and Heartfelt

[Guest guest]

Sometimes we forget all that happens in various parts of our

Great country, this is a heartfelt story.~ Janet

 

The writer and his wife live in LA and both work for Uncle Sam.

 

A Day at Baltimore Airport

 

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.

 

Will Ross

Administrative Judge

United States Department of Defense

 

Making Light of Scents,

Janet Golden-Hogan

 

http://www.GoldenEssence.com