Great story. It's been circulating for weeks. > -----Original Message----- > From: Steven Montgomery [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2003 9:56 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [ZION] Inspirational Story > > > Here is a very inspirational *true* story, verified by > www.snopes.com (They > talked to the original source of the story, Will Ross. See For > yourself at: > http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/onleave.asp). I thought this might > brighten up your day <grin>. > > -- > Steven Montgomery > > A Day at Baltimore Airport (The writer and his wife live in LA and both > work for Uncle Sam.) > > 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 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. > > Will Ross > Administrative Judge > United States Department of Defense > Bonnie Rathke > Regional Purchaser, DHS Region 7, mailcode 016-1 > Phone 512/832-7672, Fax 512/834-4797 > Digital pager 800/527-2431 pin 5101 > > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// > //////////// > /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// > /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// > /////////// > > > >
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