The Anchoress
I’ve been meaning to say something to you folks for a couple of weeks. I get some emails from guys in the military, and I often peek and find them reading the blog, particularly in the wee small hours – I’m always especially humbled to see whoever it is that’s reading me out of Baghdad – to think that someone whose courage and sacrifice and commitment I so admire is actually reading little old me. I thank you, and yes, it’s humbling.
I have something to pass on to you – a message. It is a story about something that happened to my son, Buster, a year ago, but I didn’t have a blog a year ago, and so I haven’t told it. It is meant for you.
You see, last year, Buster visited Washington D.C. with his Boy Scout Troop. Buster is a big kid – over 6 feet tall, and built like a giant Scots warrior – and his scout uniform has a fair amount of decoration on it.
As he was leaving the Lincoln Memorial, he was stopped by an elderly gentleman who pulled himself fully erect and gave my son a grave and solemn salute. “Grazie,” he said, “grazie, Joe” followed by some more rapid-fire Italian.
Buster, who speaks a little bit of Italian, tried to explain that he was not a soldier, only a Boy Scout. “Grazie, but no…Boy Scout.”
The man said, “Ah, Boy Scout! Bene! Americani GI Joe, molto bene!”
Buster thanked him for appreciating our troops.
When he came home, he couldn’t wait to tell me this story; he said, “Ma, he looked like he was 80-90 years old do you think he was around when we liberated Europe, and that’s what he was thanking me for?”
I suggested that perhaps he was thankful that Americani GI Joe, molto bene, is still on the job.
I cannot express to you, how proud and moved my son was to receive the salute of this aged gentleman on behalf of you folks. It moves him still to remember it, and to know that he – however unjustly – was witness to and recipient of the sort of gratitude and regard that our American troops have always deserved, and which they’ve always earned, regardless of those sentiments to the contrary which we hear from some quarters.
This kid now knows firsthand, and in his gut, what so few understand; that the American military – for all of its errors (a fully human enterprise will always have some errors) has been, and continues to be, a force for GOOD in the world.
Buster had the honor of receiving a salute on behalf of our fighting men and women. It is my honor to pass it on to you.
God bless our troops and their Commander-in-Chief.
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