Making the short climb up the fold-out staircase leading into the airplane, I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I walked through the door.
The scene was Scott Air Force Base, Ill., a week before Thanksgiving. The plane was a large old C-141 carrying nearly 100 injured American soldiers back from the fierce fighting in Fallujah and other Iraqi cities.
What happened during my hour aboard that plane will stay with me forever.
It may be hard to understand how a brush with wounded soldiers could be positive and uplifting, but my time with those troops was all that and more. Their incredible spirit and bravery, their genuine love of this country, and their unwavering commitment to each other left me with overwhelming feelings of admiration and gratitude.
You might expect a planeload of injured troops to be sad or scared or maybe even resentful. The men and women on that aircraft returning from the battlefield were just the opposite. As I walked through the darkened plane, shaking their hands and thanking them for serving our country, soldier after soldier expressed the exact same sentiments. First and foremost, they wanted to get patched up so they could go back to their friends, their fellow soldiers in Iraq. Can you imagine that kind of courage? I saw it up close, and believe me, it’s real.
The troops also waved off any description of themselves as heroes. We were just doing our jobs, they said. Maybe so, but in my book they are heroes in the finest sense of the word.
Their wounds varied in severity, but even the more seriously injured took a businesslike attitude toward the whole experience. One soldier casually remarked that he planned to save some of the shrapnel that literally had torn through his neck and cheek so he could polish it and turn it into jewelry. Another young man who’d been machine-gunned in the chest calmly pointed out that his flak vest had saved him.
As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, I’ve always admired and believed in our armed forces, but recently witnessing their strength, character and integrity up close was an awesome experience. Their morale couldn’t have been much better, and they said the same is true of their fellow soldiers still in the fight. Keep in mind they are all volunteers, much like our own U.S. Merchant Mariners.
The other thing that stood out from my visit was how young so many of the soldiers are. For some of the guests aboard that plane, it was like looking at our children or grandchildren—a jolting feeling. For others, they actually were looking at and visiting with their children.
It called to mind some of the stories from World War II, when kids in their mid-teens lied their way into the armed forces or the merchant marine because they wanted to join the fight. They wanted to help win the war. It’s heartening to know that so many Americans were ready then, just as we were in Korea and Vietnam and the first Persian Gulf War. It’s inspirational to see that so many have stepped up to win today’s battles.
I went to Scott Air Force Base to join in honoring our good friend, Lt. Gen. Gary Hughey, who is retiring as the deputy commander of TRANSCOM, the U.S. Transportation Command.
After spending time on the base with General Hughey and on the plane with Lt. Col. Todd Robbins, I came away with an even greater appreciation for the incredible job done by TRANSCOM under the outstanding leadership of its commander, Gen. John W. Handy. I have similarly strong appreciation for the performances of our troops and the unsung heroes who make up the medical staffs for our armed forces.
Believe it or not, there were lighthearted moments on the plane, too. The rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox was in full force, as evidenced by fans of both baseball teams. And a number of the soldiers joked about having a chance to “autograph” the bulkheads, as others had done as far back as the mid-1970s, when that very same plane carried the last known POW’s from Vietnam.
Because of the SIU’s role as part of America’s fourth arm of defense, I’ve probably never looked at news reports on the war in Iraq quite the same way as the average American does. Our own SIU brothers and sisters repeatedly have sailed into harm’s way to support our troops in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Our SIU brothers and sisters have sailed side by side with military security teams aboard our U.S.-flag ships. So it has always been personal.
Still, after spending time on that plane, I’ll never view the war reports the same way. It’s different now, even closer to the heart.
We’ve often said in the SIU, we deliver the goods. As we enter the New Year, I want everyone to know that the people we deliver for—the men and women of the United States Armed Forces—are the finest individuals on this planet.
God bless us all in 2005 and beyond.
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