This should warm your heart!
The Sack Lunches I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight... 'I'm glad I have a good book to read Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought. Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.
'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me. 'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time.. As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier
ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to base ' His friend agreed. I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch.
I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.'
She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq ; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'
Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked,
'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?' 'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. This is your thanks.' After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me... 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.
Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, 'I want to shake your hand..' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers. Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.
When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane.. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars! Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.' Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return.
These soldiers were giving their all for our country.
I could only give them a couple of meals.
It seemed so little...
A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it..'
May you have the strength and courage
to pass this along to those on your email list....
I JUST DID
'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me. 'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time.. As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier
ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to base ' His friend agreed. I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch.
I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.'
She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq ; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'
Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked,
'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?' 'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. This is your thanks.' After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me... 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.
Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, 'I want to shake your hand..' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers. Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.
When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane.. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars! Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.' Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return.
These soldiers were giving their all for our country.
I could only give them a couple of meals.
It seemed so little...
A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it..'
May you have the strength and courage
to pass this along to those on your email list....
I JUST DID
Posts
15 comments:
Shorter version:
"It's all about how awesome I am, you dirty fucking hippies."
Give me a fucking break. I've been on COUNTLESS flights where there are actve military and ths FA give them lunches, drinks, etc., for free. Plus, I'm pretty sure most airlines SOP prohibit the captain leaving the cockpit except for natural breaks or safety of flight issues (what's that leaking, is the passenger dying, etc.)
Let me tell a story that happened to me once. As a good liberal, I remember that I was on a flight with a solider with no leg. I asked the stewardess for a saw, which she happened to have, even though there is no way that made it through security, and I gladly cut my leg off and gave it to the solider, even though I had passed out from the loss of blood and pain...
This e-mail has inspired me to forward an e-mail with fifty waving American flags to everyone I know.
Oh God, anon, tell me they were made in Blingee
I like the way the guy keeps getting up and walking around so others can thank him for his unselfish generosity.
LOL!!! Agree w/above responses but have to toss in my 2 cents worth for the heck of it.
I mean: seriously! This dude/gal is so FULL OF THEMSELVES. It's like narcissism on steroiods smoking crack mixed w/meth or something.
Look at me! LOOK at me!!! LOOK at MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am teh shitz fer sure.
What I LOVE the most is how this idiot has him/herself amply rewarded for the purported good deed of feeding our troops. What happens? The troops get the crappy sack lunch (and on an airplane, believe me, the sack lunch sucks), but s/he gets to eat some fancy food from 1st class. Does s/he say: oh no, pls give that finer food to my seat mate here? Why no, s/he, like the good Rethug that s/he is, EATS it all up! Wheeee! I deserves MORE than the troops.
And then, of course, the CAPTAIN (probably Captain Sully, as no less will do for this @$$) comes out to BOOM out praise for EVERYONE to hear about how GREAT this person is... forget about the troops, scum that they are. Why thank them, when there's some cheap$hit rethug to thank???
And then finally, Mr/Ms. Moneybags gets ALL of their money with interest back from the slavering masses on the planes, who can't wait to give THEM the money, NOT the troops (who could use it to buy body armor, at least).
If this ain't a Repugnantcan wet DREAM on steriods, I don't know what is. It's got it all: the person actually MAKES MONEY on their "investment" (the MAIN MORAL of this story), whilst being adulated, praised, adored and fed better by all in sight.
Sheesh... it was worth the time to read this tripe just to see how their self-centered, self-absorbed, me first, me last, me only, me always puny minds work.
Plus: don't forget to toss out some randome bible verse just to show how "christianist" you are (probably support those weirdos on C Street) and then, yes: PASS THIS PUPPY OOOONNNN for all the world to see what a GREAT person I AM!!! woooooo hooo boy.
Anonymous @10:25, that comment made my day. Especially "probably Captain Sully." LOL!
Isn't there some notion out there that, if you do good deeds or perform a service, you're not supposed to BRAG about to the ENTIRE UNIVERSE?? In fact, aren't you supposed to do stuff like this with no thought or concept of getting ANY thanks or even acknowledgement, much less praise?
As one of the anon posts said, above, the self-centeredness of this is just amazing, not to mention the self-congratulatory aggrandizement.
Another icing on the cake is how the FEMALE flight attendant got all teary-eyed just bc someone offered a whole HUGE, GIANT amount of money totalling - wowee zowee - $50!! Sheesh.
Get a room for that masturbatory, cheapskate fantasy, why doncha?
The only thing missing from this fantasy is the guy whipping out his concealed machine pistol to mow down several menacing dark-skinned men.
OOOOH, I HAVE AN IDEA! A BRILLIANT IDEA!
Here's what we do:
We start paying soldiers better, so that $5 for lunch isn't too expensive for them!
All we have to do is make sure that the rich pay their fair share of taxes, and make sure that money is spent on actually paying, and generally taking care of, our soldiers - rather than on, say, putting profits in contractors' pockets.
That way, our soldiers wouldn't have to rely on the kindness of a stranger looking to brag to his internet friends about how he bought a few soldiers a handful of cheap lunches once in his life!
Soldiers could just afford to buy food themselves!
And the writer of this gem could go back to forwarding e-mails about the evils of taxation and government-run programs!
How does that sound, my patriotic, soldier-supporting fellow Americans?
Hello? Hello? Anyone?....
this just drives hom my point of modern day philanthropy. 50 bucks get you in the door of philanthropic(?) heaven. you used to have to build libraries and universities. at least adopt some starving kid in peru from sally struthers. now we can all have a big group hug over pocket change spent in a neo-con wet dream. i feel warmer and cozier and fuzzier already.
Great thread of comments.
Hypocrisy?
You're soaking in it.
LOL! Great comments. Too true: let's pay our soldiers enough, so that they can afford to pay at least $5 for their own lunches. But hey: we have to pump those tax dollars to Dickhead Cheney via Halliburton & Xe.
Also, yeah: when did giving out a few lousy bucks to someone suddenly become the example of great philanthropy?
What a bunch of losers... $50 lousy bucks and suddenly you're Mr. or Ms. Bigshot. They must have such low self-esteem and hugely boring lives devoid of any interesting creativity if this is the best fantasy they can come up with.
I guess if your idea of a "good time" is being harangued by dullards & losers like Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and Lush Rimjob, this is the best you can come up with... sheesh.
It is gross that the focus is on what a "great guy/gal" this person is for allegedly buying a few soldiers a lunch. The fact that none of these dickheads is even slightly disturbed by the notion that we are sending these (mostly young) people into BATTLE (eg: that means they have the opportunity to get killed or maimed), but they cannot AFFORD a measly $5 lunch, is sobering.
Contards only "support the troops" for their own selfish political gain. Certainly let's not appropriately tax the obscenely wealthy, who are the ones, after all, who have benefitted royally by the illigitimate war in Iraq (and the somewhat more legitimate one in Afganistan).
Really disgusting, but totally not surprising.
So, this guy bought lunch for soldiers? Boy, what a hero.
What this story needs is some dirty hippie yelling "babykiller" only to be beaten to death by irate, patriotic, real Americans. That would be a lot more interesting than "I bought soldiers sandwiches. Everyone thought I was the shit. The end."
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