Whenever I see soldiers or airmen around (because of where I live I don't get the pleasure of seeing many marines or sailors) I want to thank them for their service to our country, but I never do because I just feel weird about it. So I asked an active duty soldier I’ve struck up a correspondence with about it. Below is his reply. I’ll be thanking our servicemen from now on.
Pedro-You asked how I or another soldier would feel if a stranger were to tell us Thank You at random. The answer is that it feels great, it's something we never get tired of hearing. I worked at John F. Kennedy Airport in the international terminal with the Army as a part of Operation Noble Eagle (we called it Operation Humble Turkey) for eight months. We got told Thank You a million times. I appreciated every single person that told me this. It's funny, I felt like being thanked did more for the people thanking us than it did for us, the thanked. It was as if they needed a way to show gratitude and to tell a soldier was the best and most genuine way to do it and us being there provided them with a means to do this. I was happy that I was able to complete this process that was obviously very personal and heartfelt from eveyone who approached to thank us. All I could every think to say was 'thank you' back, for sharing your gratitude, for appreciating how I'm currently going nuts standing in an airport terminal for eight to twelve hours a day, for letting me be a part your personal gratitude process, or even for simply noticing me, just another soldier.
-Jason
Read Jason’s excellent blog at: http://www.recognizant.com/myiraq/
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