On that day ... a reminder of why the national anthem plays

Commentary by Maj. Mike Stolt
97th Flying Training Squadron

7/17/2006 - SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- It was a hot Tuesday afternoon. I was leaving Bldg. 402 after updating my base vehicle sticker.

As I walked toward the double-glass doors leading to the parking lot, I encountered a small group of people standing just inside the door -- two Airmen, a civilian employee and one captain. As I reached for the door, the captain said, "You don't want to go out there right now."

I looked out and saw traffic stopped and several people standing in the hot July sun, gazing westward, some saluting, some standing at attention and some with their hands laid on their chests.

No, I don't really want to go out there right now. I looked at my watch -- 4:30 p.m.

I stood with the group that now numbered five. No one spoke. One Airman made a call on her cell phone, the other shifted his gaze back and forth between his shoes and the wall. The captain sifted through a folder of papers. The civilian and I watched through the glass doors as a technical sergeant stood at attention, saluting ... a sweat ring growing on his back. It seemed to go on forever.

The base loudspeakers squeaked out the last recorded notes of the national anthem. The cars rolled forward, the technical sergeant lowered his salute. The civilian pushed our door open and walked out. The rest of us followed. When the heat hit me, I felt fortunate that my timing had kept me inside during the long ceremony.

I thought about that day for weeks. Images of the episode flashed through my mind as if I'd witnessed a crime -- the plate-sized sweat ring, the glow of the cell phone on the Airman's cheek, the civilian's hand resting on the door handle, the glare of the sun, the heat.

I recently read an article about the war on terror and learned that we average 2.35 Americans dead and 10 wounded every day in the area of responsibility. That day leapt back into my thoughts. A few hours of research helped me identify the date -- July 14, 2005.

On July 14, 2005, 23-year-old Cpl. Chris Winchester and 22-year-old Cpl. Cliff Mounce were killed when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad.

On that day, 21-year-old Pfc. Tim Hines Jr. died when an IED hit his Humvee.

On that day, 34-year-old Staff Sgt. Tricia Jameson was killed by a secondary IED while she was treating a victim of the primary IED. She, Chris Winchester and Cliff Mounce all died in Trebil. We can assume she was treating Chris, Cliff or another in their group. She volunteered to go to Iraq and had been in-country three weeks.

On that day, four American Soldiers died in Iraq and numerous others were wounded.

On that day, four families were plunged into mourning.

On that day, I flew one sortie, sifted through e-mail, updated my base vehicle sticker and hid from the heat behind a glass door.

Why does it matter that I avoided participating in retreat? Some may think it's silly symbolism, that it's not real. An aircraft is real. A computer, a vehicle sticker -- they're real.

I believe that anything that you allow to move you, or that inspires those around you to search their hearts, is as real as the bomb that tore Chris Winchester's body apart last summer. Anything that forces an entire base to stop and listen to their thoughts for a while is real. Anything that causes you to pause and acknowledge that American Soldiers may be under fire as you listen to the national anthem is real.

As we five stood inside that doorway, the Soldiers killed and wounded that day may have been bleeding, screaming and dying in the sand.

If my timing is ever again as perfect as it was that day, I'll be prepared. I'll be ready with, "Yes, I do want to go out there right now." You may not come with me, but I'll bet you think about it for weeks.

If I had stepped outside to pay respect to the flag and to the four Soldiers who died that day, how long would it have taken?

One minute and 28 seconds.

Try this Comeback

I Love This Comeback (from a friend who's son

is in the military)

One of my sons serves in the military. He is

still stateside, here in California. He called

me yesterday to let me know how warm and

welcoming people were to him, and his troops,

everywhere he goes, telling me how people shake

their hands, and thank them for being willing to

serve, and fight, for not only our own freedoms

but so that others may have them also. But he

also told me about an incident in the grocery

store he stopped at yesterday, on his way home

from the base. He said that ahead of several

people in front of him stood a woman dressed in

a burkha. He said when she got to the cashier

she loudly remarked about the U.S. flag lapel

pin the cashier wore on her smock. The cashier

reached up and touched the pin, and said

proudly," Yes, I always wear it and probably

always will." The woman in the burkha then asked

the cashier when she was going to stop bombing

her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi. A

gentleman standing behind my son stepped

forward, putting his arm around my son's

shoulders, and nodding towards my son, said in a

calm and gentle voice to the Iraqi woman: "Lady,

hundreds of thousands of men and women like this

young man have fought and died so that YOU could

stand here, in MY country and accuse a check-out

cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen. It is my

belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR

own country, we wouldn't need to be there today.

But, hey, if you have now learned how to speak

out so loudly and clearly, I'll gladly buy you a

ticket and pay your way back to Iraq so you can

straighten out the mess in YOUR country that you

are obviously here in MY country to avoid."

Everyone within hearing distance cheered!

my wife was stil in New York City when 9/11 took place. I had just been up there to visit her the day before. Despite her shock and mental anguish, she still had the presence of mind to take pictures from the Staten Island harbor as she watched two landmark icons crash to the ground. About a week later, I went back to see her again and we were allowed to go over to Manhattan to see for ourselves. I am very glad I got to see the World Trade Center Towers in all their beauty and splendor before this disaster took place. What I saw with my own eyes has been burned into my memory for a lifetime. This was just one day, I can scarcely imagine what it must be like for our troops to face this kind of scene day after day. It has to be life altering for these young man and women.
A short time after 9/11, I was at work when the loudspeaker announced a period of mourning for those lost and for those who serve to protect our freedom. We all went outside as the flag on the front lawn was lowered to half-mast. Truck drivers stopped their rigs and stood with their hats over their hearts. I held my hand there for a second and then changed to a salute. Although I have never served in the military, part of me has always wanted to. I hold every person I see in uniform with the highest respect, for without them and those who served before them, the quality of life I enjoy today would not exist.
I go to the various memorials in Washington DC and see the images and names of soldiers that paid the full measure for this country and I am often moved to tears. Its alomst as though I can hear them calling out to everyone there saying, "remember us...and dont let our sacrifice be in vain."...this is why we must write books and make movies and tell the stories to our children, so we never forget.
To all you in uniform here and all those you serve with, to those you hold dear and those you may have lost...I stand tall and salute you.

thank you for that t-bat. I myself had a chance to visit the site where the towers once stood. Although, I never had the chance to see the towers before 9/11, I couldn't have imagined how that day must have been for those people there. I went there in the December following 9/11. It amazed me even then, how people were still in shock. Many things have happened in our country over the years. Form the bombing of the World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City bombing, I don't think I have ever seen anything that moved me in such a way. I tell everyone I talk to about my trip there and I am sure that you feel the same, but pictures on the news and in the papers will never do justice to that horrific scene. I know it was months afterwards that i went to see that site, but I just stood there and tried to picture what it must have been like for the people there that day. I am sorry that your wife had to witness those events.

Please remember that our brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters are dying every day so that people have the right to say whatever they wish in this country. Most of us have grandparents that served in WWII. Never let their service and sacrifice go unnoticed. I thank my grandfather often for his service during that critical time. I will return the thanks to anyone that supports the troops and our flag.

Wow, that's awesome... I'm so grateful that those soldiers have done what they have... like T-Bat said, "for without them and those who served before them, the quality of life I enjoy today would not exist."

Well put. I definitely enjoyed reading that. Every word.

Thank you all for your sincere displays of aprreciation. I'm going to start distributing this around to those of my buddies that are still in.

GOD bless the troups that are fighting,have fought, and are going to fight.
Hey HERC with that patriot gaurd do u have to have a bike to help in that.....