This is a must read:
From: Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
To: chohenhous
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 10:45 AM
Subject: Baltimore Airport
Subject: Baltimore Airport
A story you won't see in the press....
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 a
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.
XXXX XXXX
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense
"We can't change the winds but we can adjust our sails."
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