You Don’t Know How Much It Means
A few of us decided to take in Steak Night at the Velvet Lounge last night. First off, the steak was quite tasty. You should swing by on a Wednesday if you get a chance.
We’re sitting at the bar eating and Buddy says “Rodney” and gives me a head nod to look to my left. I look over to see a man in uniform. I looked over and saw Corporal Hemphill about to order a beer. He had a comp card for a free drink. I reached out and introduced myself and ask Jenn to put Corporal Hemphill’s drinks on my tab and to get him a steak to boot. He grinned from ear-to-ear and said thank you. I looked at him and said: “you’re welcome and thank you for what you do…without you, we would not be able to sit here with friends, have a meal and drink a beer…” He leaned over and said: “sir, you have no idea how much it means when someone acknowledges us as soldiers…for me it makes me proud and makes me want to stay in for life…thank you.”
He started eating his steak and leaned over and said “this is the best steak I have had.” We started talking little more about how he arrived in the Army and some of his stories about what he had done to date. His specialty is munitions. You could see his eyes light up as we asked questions about his job. He really started grinning when Buddy asked him some questions about fueling and loading ammo on the helicopters. One story I recall vividly was him telling us about fueling an Apache in the freezing rain and the downwash from the rotors just slamming him with freezing rain. He still smiled during the entire conversation. Judi and Nora started asking him some questions about his new cammo and the reasoning for some of the positioning of his patches. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice that he enjoyed speaking about his “Army” and was proud to be a soldier.
Corporal Hemphill is leaving in a few weeks for a 22 month deployment. He said something that really stuck with me. “Sir, it will be a good deployment as I choose to see it that way…it would be easy to be bitter and angry about being over there but I choose to see it as a good thing where I am making a difference…” For me the consummate positive thinker, I just looked over, smiled and said: “it is indeed a choice.”
To Corporal Hemphill, thank you for sharing your time with us last night. Thank you for educating us a little last night, and thank you for having a positive attitude. “You don’t know how much it means!”
A few of us decided to take in Steak Night at the Velvet Lounge last night. First off, the steak was quite tasty. You should swing by on a Wednesday if you get a chance.
We’re sitting at the bar eating and Buddy says “Rodney” and gives me a head nod to look to my left. I look over to see a man in uniform. I looked over and saw Corporal Hemphill about to order a beer. He had a comp card for a free drink. I reached out and introduced myself and ask Jenn to put Corporal Hemphill’s drinks on my tab and to get him a steak to boot. He grinned from ear-to-ear and said thank you. I looked at him and said: “you’re welcome and thank you for what you do…without you, we would not be able to sit here with friends, have a meal and drink a beer…” He leaned over and said: “sir, you have no idea how much it means when someone acknowledges us as soldiers…for me it makes me proud and makes me want to stay in for life…thank you.”
He started eating his steak and leaned over and said “this is the best steak I have had.” We started talking little more about how he arrived in the Army and some of his stories about what he had done to date. His specialty is munitions. You could see his eyes light up as we asked questions about his job. He really started grinning when Buddy asked him some questions about fueling and loading ammo on the helicopters. One story I recall vividly was him telling us about fueling an Apache in the freezing rain and the downwash from the rotors just slamming him with freezing rain. He still smiled during the entire conversation. Judi and Nora started asking him some questions about his new cammo and the reasoning for some of the positioning of his patches. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice that he enjoyed speaking about his “Army” and was proud to be a soldier.
Corporal Hemphill is leaving in a few weeks for a 22 month deployment. He said something that really stuck with me. “Sir, it will be a good deployment as I choose to see it that way…it would be easy to be bitter and angry about being over there but I choose to see it as a good thing where I am making a difference…” For me the consummate positive thinker, I just looked over, smiled and said: “it is indeed a choice.”
To Corporal Hemphill, thank you for sharing your time with us last night. Thank you for educating us a little last night, and thank you for having a positive attitude. “You don’t know how much it means!”
No comments:
Post a Comment