Coming home from Iraq.

Paula and I were at Dallas Fort Worth Airport early a couple of Sundays ago. While we sat, we suddenly heard a round of applause from people sitting and waiting for planes out of town. As we looked up we noticed people in sequence of each gate, coming to their feet, looking up and applauding with enthusiasm.

We looked up to realize there was a glass enclosed walkway overhead, and in a single column, khaki clad soldiers were walking along.  As they passed each cluster of seats, people would rise to their feet and applaud.  As the line got longer and longer, more and more people would spontaneously rise. The procession--and the applause--extended for some length of time and distance. People kept standing and clapping until the last soldier had passed.

I don't know if they could hear us, but you could see their faces, some beaming, some gesturing with thumbs up or clasping their hands overhead, a few weeping. We could not hear them at all.  Instead, throughout the airport were TV monitors set on CNN.  The newscaster was talking about car bombs killing over 60 people in Baghdad this morning.

I don't think most folks were aware of what was on TV. But the respect and admiration for these young volunteers was extremely moving.

I could not help but notice how young they all seemed to me. When I was their age, we had another unpopular war going on. But this was a very different experience. When soldiers came home from Vietnam, they were often greeted with jeers, not cheers.

Times have changed. The American people now understand the difference between the "masters of war" as Bob Dylan called those who wage them and the "dogs of war" as Frederick Forsythe called those who fight them.

It was a very moving moment.

Comments

[Mark Goren]

Shel: Did your experience feel anything like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AGay3mZHeE

If so, I can only imagine how moving it was.

[Doug Karr]

Great post, Shel. It made my hair stand up just reading it.

I was in Desert Shield/Desert Storm and we came home in the middle of the night... driven from North Carolina to Virginia in a military school bus, where I met my son after 10 months of being away. He was still in diapers and had no idea who I was. It was quite a while ago but I can't tell you how that felt.

Some of these young men and women have been gone for even longer and they even return for additional tours. I pray for them and their families.

[shel israel]

My experience had definite similarities. But the soldiers were elevated from us and seperated by glass. Instead of being linked to a beer ad, the background was a newscast discussing death in the place they had just left. But the visual similarity is quite close.

[Perry P. Perkins]

Shel,

Thanks for sharing that.

My best friend is in the Army and just got back a couple of months ago. We went out to dinner straight from the airport (he was in uniform) and it was amazing to see people's responses. Folks smiled and waved, asked to shake his hand, etc.

Then a elderly lady insisted on giving him a hug. She was smiling and had tears in her eyes and told him in a soft voice that her son didn't come home from Vietnam, and whenever she met a soldier coming home from war, she gave him the hug she never got to give her boy.

I'll tell you what, you've never seen two grown men break down so fast. We just sat there for a long time, saying nothing and wiping our eyes.

It's good to see that, regardless of how people feel about the war, most are standing behind the brave men and women who are sacraficing the most.

Thanks again,

-Perry

[Paloma Cruz]

My brother commented this to me once when he was coming home from drill -- people's reactions to him and his friends included applause, handshakes and blessings. I've seen it myself when we go out and he's in uniform. This is my baby brother, and people treat him with awe and respect.

It scares me a little. It makes me glad for him.

In May he leaves for his voluntary tour in Iraq. Voluntary... I came very close to calling him an idiot. But I know that he just wants to do his part. And I know that I am just scared that his name will be added to the long list of casualties.

He's my baby brother. I don't want him in harm's way.

He's a soldier. He takes great pride in his training, his fellow soldiers and what they can accomplish together. And he wants to do his part.

I'm glad others know that it isn't the soldiers making the decisions on what happens next. And I'm glad that my brother will get cheers for volunteering to do such a dangerous thing.

[Priscilla Kulp]

I just wanted to say that I do remember Operation Desert Storm and the Soldiers faces on Television however.......I was only 16. Now that I am 33 and my husband is in Iraq on his 3rd Tour.......I must say thank all of you for the support and blessings they really do mean alot