Just thought I'd share this with the board. Today I spent several hours at the Dallas-Ft-Worth International Airport welcoming our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan....for their 2 week R & R. They come into DFW each day directly from Kuwait....on a military flight. Today, we welcomed 269 home. I went early and met and talked with the wives, children and families. Most of them had not seen their loved one in six months. One young wife was "surprising" her husband who did not know she drove up from Austin to greet him. I told her I'd take pictures of them as they met....and send them to her....so she gave me her name, address, etc. There was a young woman there with a one-week old baby who was going to be seeing her Daddy for the very first time!
As the young men and women came down the hallway that we have decorated with signs of "Welcome" and "Texas Love our Troops" and "God Bless our Soldiers"....we yell, wave flags, shake their hands and hug them. They all smiled at us and seemed pleasanty surprised that we were there to welcome them. As I said "Thank You"....many said back to me, "Thank you." There were many tears.....mostly shed by me!!
I took a whole roll of pictures which I already got developed and will be mailing them to the people I promised I would.
When it was over, I drove two different soldiers over to another terminal. One was from Iraq....the other in Afghanistan. I asked the young man who is stationed in Afghanistan what the morale was like there. And here was his answer: "It's good. We know going in it's a hard assignement, but we also know it's an important one. It's good.....really good."
These young men and women seemed so appreciate of us. It made me cry. It was emotionally draining.....but it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in a long time. I'll be going back to do some more greeting soon.