|
|
|
Trooper
 
Group: Registered User
Last Login: 10/15/2008 7:05 PM
Posts: 753,
Visits: 1,275
|
|
OK a friend sent this to me. I didnt see that it had been posted anywhere. I thought this was pretty cool.
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 Mond ay 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 thei r 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
"Some people dream of success...while others wake up and work hard at it"
|
|
|
|
|
Seasoned Vet
Group: Community Supporter
Last Login: Today @ 4:43 PM
Posts: 5,783,
Visits: 4,086
|
|
[thumbUp][thumbUp][thumbUp]Good to see people back home showing Respect for the Troops!!
Abraham Lincoln (quiet, reserved and selfless): “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here” -Gettysburg Address
Obama (egotistical): “Now the world will watch and remember what we do here”
|
|
|
|