Hello Captain, this is your Commander in Cheif speaking. Would you mind holding takeoff until I finish saying Goodbye to my troops?"
AWESOME mom. Thanks for posting these. I love those guys (and gals).
Fantastic photos!
you guys up there are wonderful!!
That is incredible! Look at the faces of the troops.
Look at this! A real leader! Hit ping lists, if you have them!
Hello Captain, this is your Commander in Cheif speaking. Would you mind holding takeoff until I finish saying Goodbye to my troops?"
I am almost sorry I had the day off from work today...had I been working, I would have been on that plane with President Bush. I work for the company that catered that plane and my co-worker Melvin got to do the plane instead. Oh well, I wouldn't have missed that rally for anything. (Except Church, that is,)
These are great pictures! God bless our soldiers and our wonderful, caring President.
good post, GREAT PRESIDENT
"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men."
- General George S. Patton, Jr
President Bush has truckloads of it.
5.56mm
Of course, when the pictures are incidental to being there with the troops, instead of the other way around, it shows.
God love George W. Bush.
Went through Bangor a few weeks ago. Wish that would have been my flight.......... Sigh.
Great Photos!
I was on my way home in DC when I heard the news report on my car radio (WMAL-ABC radio news) about an hour ago. What struck me about the reporter's recounting the event was how excited he sounded himself.
He said that the soldiers were elated, and erupted in loud cheers and applause when they realized that the president was there to greet them. The reporter said that the soldiers swarmed the president and were reaching out and asking the president to autograph just about anything they could get their hands on, some even asking him to sign their bags (baggage, backpacks); and he said that the president signed everything that they handed him.
In listening to the news report, it sounded to me like the reporter himself caught the soldiers' emotional high. He said the soldiers loved the president.
Of course since it is the Washington Post, they have their obligatory hand-wringing comments interspersed through the article; but for the most part it shows the positive attitude of the soldiers and their respect for their Commander-in-Chief...
"May God bless you all," the commander in chief said over the plane's public address system. "May God keep you safe." As he worked his way up and down the plane's aisles, posing for photographs, signing autographs and shaking hands, the happily surprised troops called out to him.
"That's my president, hooah!" shouted Sgt. Wanda Dabbs, a 22-year-old member of the 230th Area Support Group, a Guard unit from Tennessee. Others seconded her cheer.
(snip)
Whatever their concerns about the dangers ahead, the troops on the plane were joyous when their commander in chief appeared. "I can guarantee you right now this is the best thing that ever happened to me in my lifetime," said Sgt. 1st Class Bill Freeman of the 230th, a Goodyear Tires worker in Tennessee and a Bush supporter.
Soldiers interviewed on the plane were stoic about their mission. Spec. Eddie Latham, a factory worker, called Bush "a great leader" but added: "I'm nervous to go to Iraq."
(snip)
Most of the soldiers, dressed in desert camouflage fatigues, had cameras ready to take snapshots of Bush. The president, who donned a tie and suit jacket after his political rally, offered gentle smiles and words such as "I'm proud of you" and "thank you."
The charter plane carrying the soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C., was scheduled to stop in Germany and Kuwait before the soldiers made their way into Iraq with their units: the 30th Brigade Combat Team, a Guard unit from North Carolina; the 414th Transportation Battalion, a reserve unit from South Carolina; the 230th, from Tennessee; and a few others.
Sgt. 1st Class Bobby Dailey, a Federal Express worker normally, was asked if the boisterous reception meant these were all Bush supporters. "We're commander-in-chief supporters," he clarified, and pointed out: "It ain't every day you land somewhere and the president gets on your plane."
(snip)
But 2nd Lt. Roxana Pagan-Sanchez, of the 30th, pronounced herself solidly with Bush after she got to meet the president. "He told me he's proud of me," said the mother of a 12-year-old she left behind in Raleigh, N.C. "I'm so proud of him."
Ping!
FYI Ping