Pretty Humbling Stuff

[BarryBobPosthole]

There are 25 WWII veterans in the gate area for my flight waiting for the same plane to St Louis. And they are having the time of their lives. Smiles all around and they got a huge ovation from the people at the gate when it was announced they were here. Stories being told, laughing and joke telling and just awesome attitudes. They been here touring the WWII and Korean War memorials and Arlington Cemetary.
Makes a person proud, and
Ike I said, its a humbling thing to see these heroes all having such a good time. I needed this smile today!

BKB

[Arty]

The greatest generation for sure.

[Buckrub]

Makes me cry from here.

[BarryBobPosthole]

When we got off the plane in St Louis, they had them on the plane until everyone was off, mainly so they could get all the wheelchairs out of the baggage for them. Waiting on each side of the aisle coming out the gate were about 20 servicemen all in their class A's to honor them. Really gave me a lump in my throat. One gentleman I talked to was 99 years old and refused to use a wheelchair. Fought with Patton in Africa.
Pretty amazing.
BKB

[Fido]

I was fortunate too see the changing of the guard at the tomb of The Unknown Soldier, a most humbling experience as are the words on the Tomb.

[DeputyDog]

That's cool.

I like to talk to the old vets any time I can. One night at work, I was called to the hospital to transport a patient from the ER back to his house. I normally gripe about doing that and the phrase "I'm a cop not a taxi driver." is usually involved. But this time it turned out to be an old guy who usually has a lot of health problems and usually has his neighbor pick him up after the ambulance takes him in, but didn't want to wake them up. On the way, he told me that he always wanted to be a police officer, but being back in the day, he wasn't tall enough. He also said that he had tried to be an MP in the Army, but again they told him he was too small, so they made him a "gunner". I asked him about that, and learned that he was a ball turret gunner in a B-24 flying out of England durning WWII. Mentioned losing several crew members and also a couple of crash landings.

Another time, I stopped what I thought was a drunk driver, and it turned out to be an old guy with dementia. He had gotten lost on his way home from his daily "mall walking" and was just trying to get home. The sad thing is, he lived in South Bend which is about 70 miles from where I live. I convinced him to park his car and let me drive him to the Sheriff's Department until a family member could come and pick him up. His time in the military came up and he was a tanker in North Africa, then after being told to take some tests, became a radio operator for a general in France and then Germany. He told me that he could only power up the radio in short bursts, because if they stayed on too long, they would get shelled because the German radio detection units had located their signal and knew that it was usually a muckity muck officer nearby the signal.

We also have a survivor of the USS Indianapolis that lives in my town.