Military need to be welcomed home
Commentary by Tom Daniels

During my 15 years of military service in the U.S. Air Force, I served in many combat-oriented operations across the world. Honduras, Panama, Gulf War, Haiti, Somalia and Bosnia just to name a few of the most prominent. But it is of my returning home after the Gulf War that I wish to relate a story to you.

After serving in the Middle Eastern gulf during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm for eight months, we got on a plane bound for the United States.

Our first stop was Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts. We weren’t sure what to expect on our arrival back home in America. CNN kept showing protesters and the image of our countrymen coming home from Vietnam was foremost in our minds.

It was about 3 a.m. and we walked into a hangar with a long red carpet with people on both sides of it waving flags and cheering us. We all were shocked at our welcome and, man, did it make us feel proud. We walked the carpet shaking hands and signing autographs with huge smiles on our faces.

I was in the lead as we walked down the carpet. Standing around the corner standing at the end of the carpet there were two men waving American flags, wearing partial uniforms with their beards and long hair. Their combat rifleman badges were displayed on their shirts and Vietnam campaign ribbons in their proper places above their pockets. One man had his Silver Star pinned to the flap on his shirt pocket.

Approaching him, tears started to form in my eyes and when I got to him he threw his arms around me and hugged me close and said in my ear, “Thank you for helping us come home.”

At that point I lost it and started to cry. I then looked at him and saluted and said, “Welcome Home.” The others who were on the plane with me didn’t have a single dry eye.

It was one of those moments that people remember for the rest of their lives. It’s a shame for our country that it took 20 years for our Vietnam veterans to be welcomed back.

The homecoming that we received all across the United States felt like it was more for them than for us. An ashamed nation was saying, “I’m sorry.”

Once again America is at war.

Currently thousands of men and women of our nation’s military are deployed in harm’s way. These American heroes have volunteered to serve our country whenever and wherever they are needed.

Please, don’t ever forget their service.

It’s people such as those now serving in the U.S. military that have ensured the freedoms we now enjoy in this great nation of ours. Whatever may happen in the coming months or years, remember the men and women or our military are serving us, you and me and even the noisy next-door neighbor.

And when the war is won and they come home to their families and friends, let us not shun them, but open your arms wide and welcome them home the same way I was welcomed upon my return home.

God Bless the United States of America.

Tom Daniels is an education major from Fort Worth. He can be contacted at (b.t.daniels@student.tcu.edu).

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002