All That’s Gold

My gold party in Charlotte took a lot longer than anticipated and luckily Shonda drove like a crazed woman on steroids to get me my flight on time. The flight was to leave at 4:34pm bound to Little Rock and I walked into the airport @4:10! Running through the airport like the old OJ commercials it was the first time I ever hit the security gate with no passengers. I blew my shoes off, whipped off my belt like a seasoned stripper and shoved all my equipment through. I thought for sure my luck would run out and I would be taken aside for a body cavity search since I was huffing and panting like I had escaped from a local mental institution. Couldn’t believe it, no one stopped or even slowed me down. Racing to the Gate, I noticed on the Blackberry, the gate was absolutely the last one the airport had to offer. Great, a large overweight, middle aged man now had to sprint through those maze of corridors. Good thing they have defibrillators on the plane.
I arrived at the gate @ 4:30… expecting to see the door closed and having a gate attendant smugly say I missed the flight. Yea, for the first time ever I was so happy that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and they had to get another. You learn when traveling on planes is to expect the worst and hope it doesn’t get delayed or cancelled. This delay I could live with.
As I went to board the new plane, the ticket agent scanned my winkled tattered and torn slip and a large red screen appeared DO NOT BOARD, seat does not match… and whole bunch of other error messages. She looked up at me and “Go ahead, Good Luck”. Good Luck? What does she mean by that? Is this plane in distress, have the pilots just returned from the bar? She was not reassuring at all.
Nervously, I entered the plane and proceeded down to find my seat 16D. There was some confusion at the back of the plane, I heard a g woman barking orders, find a seat, sit-down, stow your gear and let’s go. I assumed it was the flight attendant. As I made my way back, the last row was 13. Great, lucky 13 and I was in row 16, now I know why the gate attendant said “Good Luck”.
A young woman bundled up in a window seat, said “sit down, the plane is smaller so you can sit where you like”. Her voice was stern and seemed to know everything. So I sat down next to her and she kept telling the other passengers where to sit and what to do. My immediate reaction is that she herself was an off duty flight attendant, but seemed to look so young. She actually appeared to be of High School age.
After the flight took off we started to talk. I quickly noticed “yes sir, no sir” where at the end of her sentences. She explained to me she was a Marine from Texas and just graduated that morning from intelligence school. She was only 20! In two months, she will be shipped off to Afghanistan. She said her parents were nervous about her deployment, but she was excited. She was excited that her duties were to protect the boots on the ground with logistic information that would be critical to saving lives. She felt proud to serve and has no problem risking her own life to protect us back home. Needless to say Goosebumps ran up and down my arms and she stated these facts in a firm and strong tone. I couldn’t believe the conviction and maturity this young woman had.
As Americans we complain all the time about little stuff that rarely affects our overall quality of life. Here this young Marine and many others are not complaining or critical of their sacrifice. It was a pleasurable end to a long day meeting such a fine person who not only makes her parents proud, but makes all of us proud of our soldiers fighting for our freedom, liberty and safety. God Bless them all.