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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Will You Give This To My Daddy

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.

---Unknown

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

powerful stuff - I wish John Kerry was a regular reader to sbynews - and a lot more like him.

Reconciled1 said...

Thanks for making us cry today Joe.....

nancy said...

I'm sitting here blubbering and can hardly see the computer screen! That was such a wonderful story! I pray for our young men and women defending our freedom every day. It is because of them that we can sleep peacefully at night.

Anonymous said...

AWESOME, JOE. THANKS FOR SHARING.

Anonymous said...

There are no finer people than the ones who volunteer to serve to defend the freedoms that so many take for granted. May God bless all soldiers past and present and bring them home safe.

Anonymous said...

This was a alsome story, It made me cry, I let my husband read it he was also crying he was in the 1st iraq war years ago and he said he had alot of little kids walk up to him asking things like that and it broke his heart not be be able to bring there mom or dad home. He still has one little boy that still writes him every now and then tells him all about his life and all, Its alsome, ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!