ninme

Before reading this, you all should know just how relieved, how very relieved, I am to be out of Philly.

The journey to America

Curtsy: Michelle Malkin

I didn’t know they brought their weapons with them. But I guess he was going back to a base, not home on leave, or whatever. It’s amazing how long it takes, isn’t it?

Last year after Thanksgiving Peter and I flew back up here from SFO and there were a bunch of soldiers on the flight. Peter was sitting at the front of the plane with a soldier next to him and a guy working at M$, I was at the back with a woman on my left that ignored both me and the soldier at my right. Peter’s soldier talked a lot. I never really thought about the single ones, who “live” at home, when they’re at home, they have no real expenses, right? No rent, no utilities.. Maybe a cell phone and credit cards, right? So he was all excited cuz he’d leased an Audi or something that was waiting for him, even if he wouldn’t be home as long as the lease. My soldier was quiet, and just looked out the window. I’m 5′3″, and… not large. This guy was HUGE. Hulking, even. He had the BROADEST shoulders I’ve ever sat next to, and this HUGE pack, and these LONG legs, thick legs, not fat, just …big, awkwardly arranged around his pack. I felt SO bad. Squeezed into a little seat like that. The flight attendants had so many requests to buy them free alcohol, but the pilot got on the intercom and just said it was free for them, there were maybe a dozen total. Anyway, my solder was really quiet. I didn’t ever say anything to him, but I felt very protective of him, especially when he fell asleep, this big guy. Anyway, I hope he didn’t think I was ungrateful, or whatever. He didn’t have a drink, btw.

Anyway, he just seemed so tired. One of the others was seated across the aisle, he was talkative too, and said they’d been in the air for like 20 hours already. Poor lads. They had a big crowd waiting for them, too, and a TV camera was there, even in Seattle, which was nice. I felt terribly awkward on the escalator up from the subway area, it’s a bottleneck, there’s no other way to go up, but I would have preferred a different way. All these people looking for their loved ones, and I’m standing right in front of them, blocking their view. They didn’t want to look at me, after all. I felt like I was intruding on their homecoming. I guess I felt like it should have been more like those pictures of the sailors coming home from WWII. They weren’t on civilian cruise ships, with a bunch of silly girls coming down the plank with them, getting in the way.