[willowbrook] FW: Soldier's Story

[Taylor, Doug]

Pray for our soldiers.

>  -----Original Message-----
> 
> This is one of those good AND true stories.  See:
> http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/onleave.asp
> <http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/onleave.asp> 
> ======================
> 
> The writer and his wife live in LA and both work for US Government. 
> 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 cancelled 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 cancelled 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 heart-felt 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