Paying Tribute

I was getting some lunch today and as I was walking up to the establishment I noticed this woman in front me.

She was dressed in army fatigues. It was at least 65 degrees out and here she was, covered head to toe, completely with regulation uniform, boots and patches on her sleeve.

I wanted to say something to her. And as I stared at the back of head, noticing the tidy little bun that she had bobby-pinned her hair into, I found I couldn't think of anything to say.

Instead I just stared.

She ordered this full sized chicken sandwich and got just a bottle of water to go with it. As I watched all this ... I was thinking about this woman's mother (she couldn't have been more than twenty two, if that) and how she felt when her daughter told her she was going into the Army. A sense of pride maybe?

And then I thought about my own children. My daughter, who is High School now, tells me that the recruiters for all the armed services are in the lunchroom every day. This could easily be her.

It's a good thing, what these young kids are doing to support our "free" country. I cannot even imagine the scars that some of them bare from their first tour out.

I guess I just wanted to thank her, for her willingness to do her part. And maybe next time I will find those words and I will be able to say them.