Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

I’ve tackled my fear of flying. In fact, I’ve come to really enjoy it a great deal. Last week, I flew to Nashville for a sales seminar and I fell in love with that city. Friendly people, amazing music, excellent weather and places where you couldn’t walk a few steps without hitting some historic spot made it a place I quickly fell in love with and can’t wait to go back to again when I have more time to explore.

Flying home late Friday night my connection home was delayed in Atlanta. Now, I’ve been to Atlanta a few times, and I’m here to tell you it’s not really my favorite place in the whole world, especially to fly through. As I stood at the gate waiting for my flight to board I chatted with a young lady flying home to Oklahoma City to surprise her mom. Yes, you do know I’m the kind of strange guy that would strike up a conversation with pretty much anyone I’m within two feet of. My next conversation happened with an old warrior who wore a blue cap emblazoned with a small ship and the words USS Des Moines. I was excited to talk to him, and he and I chatted a long time, mostly about his service during WWII, and the fact that in all the years he’s been retired he’s never been to Iowa, but thought this was a good time to visit.

As we stood and talked I watched a group come down the concourse to the waiting area for that flight. Young men and women, dressed in their tan pixilated camouflaged gear. Young people just out of basic training headed on their way to form together one last time before heading overseas to some hot dry climate.

I watched them form back together as a group as they came down the hall, almost without thinking you could see them start to step in cadence with each other. They had all been home on their final leave I found out before they are shipped out. My old veteran friend nudged me and whispered quietly under his breath, “They’re all scared…I remember being scared like that…you can read it on their faces.”

So I scanned each of them…those young faces and wondered where they had come from, who they were, what kind of things did they like to do, and about their families. My new friend was right, they were scared, and you could read it. I was surprised by this mostly because I thought maybe I’d see more tiredness in their faces, more youth, more…I don’t know the right word…just more. But I saw fifteen young people scared to death.

I turned to ask my friend what that feeling was like and how he handled it back then. He said that he tried not to think about it much and knew what his duty was. The one thing he said that worried him the most was how his Mom would be when he was away. I think we all can understand that feeling, especially any of us that have mom’s or are parents.

I wanted to visit more with him, but he stopped me as the customer service lady began to announce boarding for that flight. He grabbed my arm and said…come help me…and I helped him to stand and he lead me over to the boarding area and stood silently saluting each one of those young men and women as they walked past him. Behind him, I stood arm outstretched and through misty eyes shook each hand and thanked them for their service to our country.

As my friend and I got to the end of the line and turned as the door to the ramp was closed, he looked at me and grinned. I grinned back at him, neither one of us saying a word as we turned to head to board our own plane back to Iowa. We didn’t need to say anything else. He had taught me a lesson about young people headed off to war, and in turn I had shown him that there were still people who were proud of the sacrifices that are made in our behalf.

I dozed quietly a few rows ahead of him on the flight back to Des Moines. When we arrived I got off the plane and stood at the end of the ramp where a couple of his former shipmates waited to greet him. It took him some time to maneuver his tired legs out of the plane and up the ramp, and at the top of it he was greeted with two saluting retired seamen and one young Iowa farm boy who was honored to shake his hand, and thank him for his service to our country.

See you next week…remember, we’re all in this together.