Troops Need Our Prayers - 2003
The following was submitted by a Grand Island E-News reader who received it in an email. It is certainly worth sharing.
At 10 a.m. this morning I received a prayer request from a friend whose husband is an Air Force Commander in Afghanistan. She received an urgent email from him this morning. It said, "We need Christians to pray, pray, pray." Please pray for God's protection of our troops and HIS wisdom for their commanders. Pass this on to as many as you think will respond. "Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior."
When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our ground, air and navy personnel in every area of the middle east. Please send this to all the people in your address book.
Of all the gifts you could give to anyone in the US Military, be it Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines or National Guard, Prayer is the very best one.....Amen!
A Day at Baltimore Airport - 2003
A Grand Island E-News reader received this in an email and writes, "Just wanted to pass along this pearl from an American Citizen!!
The writer and his wife live in LA and both work for Uncle Sam."
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 canceled 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 canceled 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 heartfelt 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