Day: May 28, 2018

So I wrote the preblast for this and was talking it up a bit. What this is, is a flight for vets of WW2, Korea and Vietnam up to DC, a tour around the city and visits to the memorials and then a flight back home with a welcome. It was one of the most remarkable times of my life. I encourage everyone to try and do this if you can and if you know someone who is a vet of these wars and hasn’t been, reach out to qchonorflight.org and see what you can do to get them on it.

The family and I showed up at the airport around 7:15 and parked in the hourly deck. When we walked in, Whoopie texted me and said there was a line so don’t get in a hurry. We waited in line and got the parking validation and our boarding passes to clear TSA. We made our way all the way to the end of concourse D. That’s where Whoopie and his family were waiting. As we all caught up and talked about this and that and watched my youngest 2.0 terrorize the isles and play with bullwinkle, the crowd kept growing and growing. At the time of our sign up, there was over 400 people. On the way in, I chatted up the USO volunteer who said there were over 600 people expected. It got to be time and people were hustling around and honor guards, patriot riders, young Marines, etc. were taking their place. We heard the bagpipes and here they come. Each era group behind their own banner. First the WW2 vets. Leading them was a 100 year old pilot. Whoopie and I did some rough calculations and about the youngest age you could be is 94 if you were a WW2 vet. The greatest generation is getting away from us, both literally and figuratively. Imagine if we still held the ideals and promise of that generation.

Next was Korea and then the Vietnam Vets. It was a sight to watch all of the revelers welcoming these men and their chaperones home. There were family members with awesome signs. The girls made up some signs for the troops and on the back of them were Stanleys local hero Nic O’Brien and Tiny Tanks friend from west point Cpt. Daniel Whitten.

All in all, the procession lasted about 15 minutes. Whoopies M got after it. She was screaming the whole time and waving the American Flag and grabbing a hand as they went by and telling them Thank you. I was speaking with another Vietnam vet at church Sunday (Walter Hobbs USMC) who is a member of the Rotary that puts this on or helps out and he was saying they sent people home in ones and twos and he landed in Charlotte at 0400 and his parents picked him up….a long way from a parade. There were a couple of men who recorded their walk thru and one remarked that this was overwhelming. we did our parts to make sure these men know how much they are appreciated. I remembered the old pictures you see on facebook that says “that old man was way more of a badass than you will ever be.” How true those words are. There are just no real words to capture everything we felt, but I hope I did it justice.

Be good brothers,
Mayor

I put some pictures up and supplemented one I saw on Facebook that was clearer.

I won’t say I was nervous about being the Q today, but I wanted it to be good. I wanted it to be memorable. I wanted to say something that would be worthy of the reasons we gathered today for The Murph. I realized during my preparation, nothing I could say would be worthy of the lives of those we would be remembering today. I could, however, make sure it was worthy of your time getting up and coming out on a rainy morning to honor those men and women who gave everything so I could live in a country where I could put on a pair of clean socks this morning, stop by the Harris Teeter and get some water for this workout, and park my car in a parking lot with 30 + men who got out of the fartsack to bust their butts with me. A country where I can complain about having to wait in line for a drink and that is the worst part of my day, and hopefully I realize that waiting in line for a drink is really not worth complaining about. We have it pretty darn good here in the USA and every once in awhile we need something like The Murph to remind us of that.

I started by calling on Roadie to clarify the difference in Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day-look it up if you were not there. Roadie nailed it and I am sure there were others out there like me that maybe a week ago, may not have been able to tell you the difference. I talked a little about who Murph was, but really wanted the guys out there to look that up and learn on your own-there is plenty of info out there on the internet to fill you in on the details. I wanted to share the end of a book I got from Stroganoff called With The Old Breed. This book by E.B. Sledge describes his experience in the Pacific Theater during part of WWII. This book helped form the basis for the HBO mini-series “The Pacific.” Reading this book will open your eyes to a small part of what the military went through on Peleliu and Okinawa. To quote an article I found on the internet, “On Okinawa, Sledge and his fellow Marines fought in mud-mud that gave them trench foot and was often thick with maggots, rotting bodies, flies, and feces. Each battle was an ordeal, a fight against a fanatical enemy that was dug in and determined to fight to the last man.”

I read the last few paragraphs of the book this morning then gave the book to Roadie for him to read so I can’t quote everything I read. I did find part of what I read online: “War is brutish, inglorious and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only redeeming factors were my comrades’ incredible bravery and their devotion to each other.”

As a non-military man over age 25, I don’t know that I will ever fully understand what the above paragraph means. I can, however, appreciate that it truly sucked worse that anything that I have ever gone through (including BRR). I can make sure I am appreciative of the sacrifice that others have made, and I can make sure my kids do the same. I was able to do this with my kids (thanks Mayor) this past week watching the Honor Flight return at the airport. If I can help some of my brothers down this road also, I will be satisfied.

We said the pledge. We did a (sort of) disclaimer. We did NOT do a warmup, then we did The Murph. We then joined the 6 on his final mile as a group, which was my favorite part. It was not planned-it just happened that way. Great way to end the workout guys-together.

We then named our 3 FNGs and went for coffeteeria after a quick prayer. Later this morning I taught my youngest 2.0 the difference in Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day while I waited in line for some food with a smile on my face.

thanks for being my brother and keeping me on track-Whoopee