{"id":1669,"date":"2012-07-08T16:48:39","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T20:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/08\/sack-lunches\/"},"modified":"2012-07-08T16:48:39","modified_gmt":"2012-07-08T20:48:39","slug":"sack-lunches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/sack-lunches\/","title":{"rendered":"Sack Lunches…."},"content":{"rendered":"

The following vignette emphasizes the honor we owe our servicemen.<\/strong>
\nI put my carry-on in the\u00a0 luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned\u00a0 seat. It was going to be a long flight. ‘I’m\u00a0 glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will\u00a0 get a short nap,’ I thought. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Just before take-off,\u00a0 a line of soldiers came down the aisle and\u00a0 filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding\u00a0 me. I decided to start a conversation. <\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Where are you headed?’ I asked the soldier seated nearest to\u00a0 me. ‘Petawawa. We’ll be there for two\u00a0 weeks for special training, and then we’re being\u00a0 deployed to Afghanistan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After flying for about an hour, an announcement was\u00a0 made that sack lunches were available for five\u00a0 dollars… It would be several hours before we\u00a0 reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch\u00a0 would help pass the time… <\/strong><\/p>\n

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if\u00a0 he planned to buy lunch. ‘No, that seems\u00a0 like a lot of money for just a sack lunch.\u00a0 Probably wouldn’t be worth five bucks.\u00a0 I’ll wait till we get to base.’\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His friend agreed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I looked around at the\u00a0 other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked\u00a0 to the back of the plane and handed the flight\u00a0 attendant a fifty dollar bill.\u00a0 ‘Take a\u00a0 lunch to all those soldiers.’ She grabbed my\u00a0 arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with\u00a0 tears, she thanked me. ‘My son was a soldier in\u00a0 Iraq ; it’s almost like you are doing it for\u00a0 him.’\u00a0 Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the\u00a0 soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and\u00a0 asked, ‘Which do you like best – beef or\u00a0 chicken?’ ‘Chicken,’ I replied,\u00a0 wondering why she asked. She turned and went to\u00a0 the front of plane, returning a minute later\u00a0 with a dinner plate from first class.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ‘This is your thanks.’ <\/strong><\/p>\n

After we finished\u00a0 eating, I went again to the back of the plane,\u00a0 heading for the rest room.\u00a0 A man stopped me. ‘I saw what you did. I want to\u00a0 be part of it… Here, take this.’ He handed me\u00a0 twenty-five dollars. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Soon after I returned\u00a0 to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down\u00a0 the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he\u00a0 walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but\u00a0 noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my\u00a0 side of the plane. When he got to my row he\u00a0 stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, ‘I\u00a0 want to shake your hand.’ Quickly unfastening my\u00a0 seatbelt I stood and took the Captain’s hand.\u00a0 With a booming voice he said, ‘I was a soldier\u00a0 and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought\u00a0 me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never\u00a0 forgot.’ I was embarrassed when applause was\u00a0 heard from all of the passengers. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Later I walked to the\u00a0 front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A\u00a0 man who was seated about six rows in front of me\u00a0 reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He\u00a0 left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When we landed I\u00a0 gathered my belongings and started to deplane…\u00a0 Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man\u00a0 who stopped me, put something in my shirt\u00a0 pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a\u00a0 word. Another twenty-five dollars! <\/strong>
\nUpon entering the\u00a0 terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their\u00a0 trip to the base. I walked over to\u00a0 them and handed them seventy-five dollars. ‘It\u00a0 will take you some time to reach the base.\u00a0\u00a0 It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.’\u00a0 Ten young\u00a0 men left that flight feeling the love and\u00a0 respect of their fellow travelers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I walked briskly to\u00a0 my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe\u00a0 return. These soldiers were giving their all for\u00a0 our country. I could only give them a couple of\u00a0 meals. It seemed so little… <\/strong><\/p>\n

A veteran is someone\u00a0 who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank\u00a0 check made payable to ‘The United States of\u00a0 America ‘ for an amount of ‘up to and\u00a0 including my life.’\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is Honor, and\u00a0 there are way too many people in this country\u00a0 who no longer understand it.’ <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following vignette emphasizes the honor we owe our servicemen. I put my carry-on in the\u00a0 luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned\u00a0 seat. It was going to be a long flight. ‘I’m\u00a0 glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will\u00a0 get a short nap,’ I thought. Just before take-off,\u00a0 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlebridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}