Will you give this to my Daddy?
As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.'
Last week I was in Atlanta Georgia attending a conference.
While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several
people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately
turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of
patriotism I have ever seen.
Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers
in their camos. As they began heading to their gate,
everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to
their feet with their hands waving and cheering.
When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40
of them, being applauded and cheered
for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not
the only red-blooded American who still
loves this country and supports our
troops and their families.
Of course I immediately stopped
and began clapping for these
young unsung heroes who are
putting their lives on the line
everyday for us so we can go to
school, work and home without
fear or reprisal.
Just when I thought
I could not be more
proud of my country
or of our service
men and women, a
young girl, not more
than 6 or 7 years
old, ran up to one
of the male
soldiers. He kneeled
down and said 'hi.'
The little
girl then
asked him if
he would
give
something to
her daddy
for her.
The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.
The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.
When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.
After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'
The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.
As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.
We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.
RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.
We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many American, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops.
Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.
By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.
If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.
The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is...We need your support and your prayers.
Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.
IF YOU AGREE -- THEN SEND THIS ON.
IF YOU COULDN'T CARE LESS THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON --- IT IS YOUR CHOICE. I don't know if you've seen this, but I couldn't delete it.
WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE.
THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED---- SO W EAR RED! --- MAY GOD HELP AMERICA TO BECOME ONE NATION, UNDER GOD.
Dear Judy,
Thank you very much for the airplane pictures and for this letter about the
soldiers. I will place this letter on my site and I'm going to wear
something red on Fridays, it's important.
One day I was in Wal Mart in Peoria. I was at their Sub Way shop waiting to
get something to eat. Then a sixteen year old looking girl came up to me
and said, "Take this". She handed me a folded up note. Thinking this was
strange, I still opened up the note. It said, "Thank you for serving the
United States of America".
When I went to Chicago and was waiting to get my ticket, a little kid came
up to me and said, "Mister, thank you for serving our country".
That's why I wear my Navy hat, it keeps the awareness that if it wasn't for
our soldiers, we wouldn't even have a country. That's why I hate hippies,
the bunch of draft dodgers who would spit on our soldiers when they came
home from Viet Nam. I didn't agree with the Viet Nam war myself, but I
joined the service during the war because it was my duty to stop the
Communism spread throughout the world. When I go to the Hong Kong Express
and talk to Hung and Jenny, they told me that during the war their lives
were much better in Viet Nam, and after the war, the Communist treated the
people very badly and many times they would just kill people because there
wasn't enough room for them to fit on a boat. Jenny told me that she saw
this. After people bought tickets to ride the boat, once the boat was full,
they hit the rest of the people in the head with a club and threw them into
the water.
Was our war in Viet Nam wrong? Yes and No, but all wars are wrong, it's too
bad that we have to fight a war because someone else was wrong when they
started it.
When I went to the club meeting in Monmouth, a man there walked up to me and
said that we were all mama's boys, referring to the people in the service.
I'm telling you the truth, I almost knocked his teeth out. He was the
mama's boy, he's the one who stayed home with his mama. The service was not
a freebe, I never worked so hard in my life. I watched people get their
bodies crushed between the ships as we were transferring from one ship to
the other in heavy seas. I watched our ship burn for three days where seven
people died, when we were in the South China Sea. I have many friends who
were shot with their guts hanging out, still shooting to keep from dying
before they were rescued. There are too many of those guys who never were
as luck as that friend, he made it, they didn't. Yet, I still hear so many
people talk about our soldiers like they are stupid idiots and never learned
anything useful when they were in the service, but what did these slanderers
learn as a civilian that a service man didn't learn in the service. I
listened to the Philippine people tell me how badly the Japanese treated
them, raped them and killed and tortured, even their kids. The Philippine
people told me that the only thing that kept any hope from total dispair was
that MacArthur said, "I Shall Return", and he did. The Philippne people
said that when the Americans returned, that the Americans helped them
rebuild their houses and set their country free instead of occupying it as
the Japanese did. Well, it happens, and we were were there to make sure that
it didn't happen here in America.
All of my four brothers and I have served in the Armed Forces. I had twelve
years service when I became disabled, my brother Jimmy has twenty three
before he became disabled, my other brother has something like forty and has
so many medals that the generals call him sir. This is true. Now he's
having problems with his feet and they may have to cut them off. My two
other brothers were never in a war zone but they served and could have gone
at a moments notice. On my site I have a picture of the Unknown Soldiers
Memorial. There were soldiers walking by carrying a flag and a lot of
people sitting on a wall. The only person that stood up and covered his
heart with his hand, was the man in a wheelchair.
Thank you for writing this letter, because we DO have to remember the people
who kept us free.
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