anonymous
A military letter from cmt.com message board
Sun Jan 18 20:39:07 2004
65.146.120.14

Sir,
On 7 November, I had the opportunity to send some of my soldiers to the White House to participate in a Presidential departure ceremony. It was billed as they would get there, get a brief by the Mil. Asst. and stand behind the ropes and wave as the President went out to Marine One.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to reward some of my Officers & NCOs who day in and day out deal with death first hand. As it turns out, once they got there, they were ushered into a separate holding room from the rest of the crowd and given the briefing. Just as they were to go out to the viewing area, an aide came and told them to follow him. The aide took them through the West Wing, into the Rose Garden. The staff and
Secret Service then left the group alone in the Rose Garden. Without a word, the President came out and spent 15 minutes with the group, alone and away from the press. I'm telling this second hand, so please forgive me. They said he came out and thanked them for the enormous job they did for the families of the fallen.

As he addressed the group, he began to
weep, the emotion he displayed changed those soldiers forever. They were standing before the most powerful man in the world and he was weeping, talking about the fallen and the price of freedom. He said he wanted the world to know that freedom was a God given right ... for all, not just those of us in the U.S. And that to have freedom, the price is high, especially when it is counted in the lives of soldiers who volunteered willingly knowing the possible consequences. The soldiers returned with a renewed enthusiasm and
determination to do right by the families. As they each shared their
stories, they too welled up with tears as they described their time with the President.

The aide said the President never does things like this, but once he found
out that folks from the Army & Marine Corps Casualty & Mortuary Affairs Office were participating in the ceremony, he cleared his schedule to spend 20 minutes with them.

I just wanted to share that story with you. It makes me proud that our President would do that to show his gratitude to our soldiers.