Hmm! Urban legend or not?!

[MoTheMan]

> 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 cancelled 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 cancelled 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, I
> saw it happen.
>
> Will Ross
> Administrative Judge
> United States Department of Defense

[Habana Mike]

Nice story either way.

Smopes is working on it:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/onleave.asp

Claim: Civilians give up their seats on commercial flight to soldiers on leave from Iraq.
Status: Incomplete.
Origins: Research in progress.
Last updated: 2 November 2003

[c2000]

I respect all our troops in the armed forces and its nice to know that the public respects them as well, as a former Viet Nam vet our return to the states was not as warm. What gets me is that these men and women are walking around Iraq with a target on their back while idiots the same age in this country are getting drunk and rioting on our college campuses. There is no sacrifice on their part, these D-horns are just wondering where the next party is going to be.(not a care in the world)

Jerry in Minnesota.

[AAlmeter]

Jerry,

Try living with them. Im in college and have to deal with them every single day. It would be wonderful if they opposed the war for some reason...but they dont. They just want to make noise.

By the way, I take no offense to your attack on college students. In fact, I support it. Most of these kids here have never worked a day in their lives, let alone put their lives on the line.

[c2000]

AAlmeter, its not so much an attack on the college rioters here in Minn and last week in Wisc as its that there is no shared sacrifice. The only ones making the sacrifice are the men and women in Iraq.

Jerry in Minnesota.

[AAlmeter]

funny, as i was reading this thread earlier today in the campus computer lab, i was distracted by the kid next to me looking at a drawing of jesus above some guys penis on collegehumor.com. i was then again distracted by an old teammate just returning home from bosnia (army reserve). he lost his financial aid because he was called to duty, and the kid looking at the penis....probably on full scholarship.