We took the boys to walk around the Legends (our local outdoor mall-type place) today. I spotted a soldier in uniform at one of the shops and told the boys that we ought to go over and thank him. I noticed a unit patch on his right arm (meaning he'd probably been overseas), so I told the boys that he'd probably been away from his own family fighting bad guys to keep us safe.
Brennan was a little shy but as we approached him he exuded friendliness and kindness. A major in the Army, he crouched down to the boys' level as I prompted them to say something. Brennan kind of hesitated but Tanner stepped right up and said in the sweetest voice, "Thank you for being such a good soldier." I think he really appreciated it (his wife and daughters were visibly touched by the gesture).
Both boys shook his hand and Brennan said, "Bye bye soldier!" as we left. Then we bumped into him and his family again just a moment later and he admired our four boys, noting that he had all girls. I wish I'd caught his name but I was so stumped by the obscure unit patches he wore that I forgot to read his name. I couldn't even find the patches on the internet – probably some obscure ADA or intelligence unit.
Around here we mostly see the Command and General Staff College patch (a chevron with three lamps) or the 35th Infanty Division patch (kind of a wheel looking thing). And of course everybody knows the famous ones like the 1st Infantry Divison patch (the big red 1) and the 101st Airborne patch (the screaming eagle), but there are a lot of patches out there that belong to National Guard units and independent brigades that don't see the light of day much – except that these soldiers are deploying in the War on Terror.
May God bless them and bring them home safe. And may God bless the kind major we met today.
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