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Hankie Alert!! What a classy first lady is Mrs Bush.

First Lady Thanks Fort Hood Families

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2004 -- First lady Laura Bush told military wives at Fort Hood, Texas, last week that she knows what it's like "having your life turned upside-down because the man you love wants to serve the country he loves."

During a March 5 visit to Fort Hood, Mrs. Bush thanked participants in the Fort Hood Women's Conference for their sacrifices in helping their spouses fulfill their dreams—dreams, she said, are protecting America's security.

The first lady acknowledged the long list of military units that hail from the Lone Star State and the important role they are playing in the role in terror.

"Over the last year, the world has witnessed the skill and the resolve of our military -- from Korea to Kosovo to the Middle East," Bush told the group. "We've seen their courage and their decency to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. From the beginning of the battle to this very hour, our troops have conducted themselves with honor and compassion. Our military men and women have helped to free 50 million people from the oppression of two brutal regimes. They've given an entire generation of children in Iraq and Afghanistan and America the chance to grow up in peace."

The first lady said America's soldiers are "defending freedom and restoring civilization … and in the true American spirit, they are building hope one heart at a time."

She cited acts of kindness that are helping to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. She noted the work of Lt. Col. Steven Maglio, chaplain from the 4th Infantry Division's Division Artillery. With the help of families at Fort Hood, Mrs. Bush told the group, Maglio has distributed more than 180 boxes of winter coats and dresses to Iraqi children.

Similarly, she said, when soldiers from Task Force Ironhorse started renovating schools in Iraq, they realized that students didn't have basic supplies like pencils and notebooks. "So they called their family and friends back home in Killeen, who collected more than 4,000 pounds of supplies," the first lady said. "The soldiers distributed paper and calculators to children in 2,000 schools in Tikrit."

Mrs. Bush said these acts of compassion aren't simply part of the soldiers' mission. "It's part of their character," she said.

The rest of the story

The Drop

There is an other-worldness to a parachute drop at night,
and when its a HALO, there is even more strangeness.
Jumping above the clouds, in air too thin to breath is a fright,
only an air mask keeps you alive, when the works may turn into a mess.

The icy air cuts through your suit, making you shiver out of control,
or maybe its a bit of fear, coming for a joy ride on your mortal soul.
The chutes and equipment bags hang like lead weights, taking their toll,
making movement a clumsy dance down the narrow aluminum aisle.

The ready light shifts in color, you have passed the point of return, live or die,
you step up to the hatch, with only blackness in your future, you go out.
The air slams you to the side, as you glimpse the aircraft’s tail flash by,
close enough to count the rivets, if you could see them without doubt!

You fall into the dark, your eyes adapting to the dark, amid the churning sky,
balancing on the airflow, arms and feet spread to hold you in that mad descent.
Far below you sense, more then see, a surface far below, and its drawing nigh,
you check the altimeter to see where you are, still more then four miles unspent.

In your descent, the wind howls like a beast, roaring a dare, and its threat,
you pray everything goes as you planned, there’s no room for mistakes.
Practice, practice, all you can count on since you stepped out of the jet,
and a passel of praying that the cruel Fates do not a hand take.

That surface below you is all hilly and tumbled, racing at you like a train,
you glance the gauge, could it be right or wrong, as your stomach churns.
Fear is your passenger, riding your soul as you dare to go on so insane,
trusting the gauge and riding it out, you guts go crazy, each taking their turns.

With a speed that takes your breath away, you slam into to that mass below,
and find its just clouds, in turmoil that tumbles you in wild turbulence.
You fight to keep the balance, to maintain some kind of control in that flow,
falling in canyons in the clouds, in your projectile's path it must be sensed.
With equal suddenness, you fall out of the mists, there’s only the world below,
and now you tense, and try to see what is hidden, what your up against.

There is air now, so you peel the mask, drag’n your first air of the night,
wondering what is in store for you, you check equipment and prepare.
You have only a moment, as the chute opens, and reality pulls in tight,
like a living pendulum you swing about, break dancing in the air.

Only in the last moment do you see the agitated surface below,
tensing up, you release the equipment bag and await the impact.
Like a stone cast into a deep pool, you penetrate the surface row,
into a bubbling softness, your environment, you arrive intact,

Releasing the chute and collecting your gear, you take a bearing,
with easy strokes you begin the swim, to somewhere a job to do.
Into the darkness, you follow an invisible line, stupid or daring,
you remain deep, and in stealth, to something which is overdue.