Brothers and Sisters in Arms

While in Washington I had the opportunity to meet several young men and women who are currently serving their country – my country. They acted as guardians, assisting the World War II veterans in anyway possible…stowing wheelchairs, pushing them around in wheelchairs, accompanying them to the top of the Lincoln Memorial, fetching water, ice cream, brochures…anything they needed. That was my job too, but to see these current soldiers serving the past soldiers was moving.

They were touched as well.

One young man, a lieutenant, asked me when I had been in the Army. Stunned that he assumed I had been I wanted to know how he knew. “Just the way you carry yourself,” he replied. I shared with him that I had been stationed in Ft. Richardson, Alaska and that I was a photo lab technician. (With digital, do they have these labs anymore or are they all computerized with Photoshop?)He did his thesis on the Women's Army Corps.

He entered the military as an enlisted man, left the service, graduated from University of Alaska, Fairbanks and rejoined as an officer.

He wrote me an email and I want to share it with you. For his privacy, I withheld his name.
Valerie,

Thank you very kindly for the wonderful email and photograph! I cannot begin to put into words how wonderful the Honor Flight trip was for me. I was equal parts honored, awed, and emotionally charged Saturday. It humbles me to think of the sacrifices made by those extraordinary men and their generation, and it humbles me still more that they were so eager to share their experiences so openly and honestly. I am a member of an
Anonymous spiritual recovery program (aa), and I felt Saturday exemplified the principles by which I try to live-- give freely of yourself and take time to cherish those with whom you connect with.

I hope to remain in contact with you via this email address, and would even like to read your book someday! I sure am glad to have met you and your dad! I wholeheartedly agree that life is an adventure! I figure I will continue with the Army until such time as it is no longer what I want to do. Until then, I will seek the adventures and meet people who come from the same cut of cloth as I do. That's why it was apparent to me that you were prior service!

You can take the gal out of the Army, but you can't take the Army out of the gal

Sincerely,!

Is it the Fourth of July yet?