My mind tends to wander through many subjects during the day and I come across some pretty good points(atleast I think so). People don't see the mental sacrifice that military men give, and how we can affect it. Which brings me to a story.
I used to work at a county jail and made friends with a few police officers. I went on a few "ride alongs" and got to watch them work. One day I went on one and we had to stop by the hospital to do a follow up. Fresh out of work we head to the ER. There I see a man laying in a hospital bed crying and fighting with the nurses to get out of bed. All I hear is,"I gotta get my boys! I gotta save them! Dear God, help me! I gotta get my boys!" The officer I was riding with told me that a concerned neighbor called in and said she saw him yelling with a gun waving in the air. He got to the man's house to find him very drunk and rambling about an ambush and that his boys were calling him and he had to save them. He lived alone, and from what little he talked to the officer coherently, he was a veteran. I went home that night and cried. I thought to myself that it could have been my dad laying there. I felt bad for this man, and I couldn't help. I never forgot him and what I took from seeing him. I never knew his name, what brought him to that point, or what happend after that night. But what he showed me I will remember forever. Which leads me to another story.
Everyday for a long time a man stood on an overpass of a main highway in my home state and would wave a big American flag for a few hours. He started when OIF started, then stopped at the end of May. He was there rain or shine. My friend and I saw him often and would honk as we went under the overpass. But one day it was pouring down and there he was in a poncho with his flag, saluting the traffic. We pulled off the highway and stopped at a gas station and bought a large cup of hot chocolate and headed to the overpass. I get out of the car and give him the hot chocolate and tell him a whole hearted thank you for standing out there everyday, waving his flag. He only said 2 sentences to us and the first one was him saying he was a Desert Storm veteran. My friend and I both told him thank you for serving our country, and for being out there on that overpass. He took the hot chocolate, teared up and said, "You're alright."
Mental sacrifices...... You never know the impact apperciation can give on someone who has sacrificed. I am glad that there are people out there that do say thank you, and more people should. "Cause it can go alot father than you think.

posted by: Michelle  |  date & time: 7:07 PM  |  comments: