11-11-2003, 01:49 AM
[font "Courier New"][size 2]A letter from Will Ross to friends and family. I checked it out and it
is for real.
Maggie
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 as 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 heart-felt 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, and I saw it happen.
Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense [/size][/font]
[signature]
is for real.
Maggie
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 as 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 heart-felt 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, and I saw it happen.
Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense [/size][/font]
[signature]
.