A Final Flight Home

In the packet of letters from the second grade class in Las Vegas, one boy wrote “have you seen the war?”  How do I answer that?  I didn’t really know what to say.  Having a son of my own who like to “play war”, I could imagine his interest, but how could I explain what real war looks like?  I didn’t want to paint a cheery picture but I didn’t want to scare him either so I talked about getting rocket attacks that sometimes hit things and other time don’t.  That was the best I could come up with before today.

Today I saw the war.  I saw it pass right in front of me while I stood at attention, held a salute and cried.  When a fallen soldier arrives on KAF, flags are lowered to half staff.  For the third day in a row I saw the flags and knew we were sending another soldier home.  Today, I decided, would be the day that I would go and pay my respects.  There is a Ramp Ceremony before every soldier’s final flight home.  There have been a lot of ceremonies during my tour.  While it is an honor to participate, I wasn’t ready before today.  Maybe I felt ready today because I am so close to going home.  Maybe it is because I have been frustrated these last few days over little things that really don’t matter.  The reason why isn’t important, it was just important for me to go. 

Soldiers from different units and different countries gather off to the side of the flight line.  As a civilian I formed up with the Officers and VIPs.  After the enlisted units had marched out and taken their place, we walked out, quietly formed up and fell into parade rest.  We were called to attention while the fallen soldier was brought to the ceremony.  We were again placed at parade rest and gave out attention to the Chaplain.  After a reading he told us about this soldier who gave the ultimate sacrifice and about the family who survived him.  My eyes had filled with tears but my military experience kicked in and I just let them roll down my cheeks while I snapped to attention and rendered a ceremonial salute.  The bagpipes played as the flag draped coffin was carried through our formation into the C-17 that was waiting to take this young man home.  Thank you.