LONGFISHER, CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THIS...

[NY Bearhunter]

Life isn't about how to survive the storm but how to dance in the rain. "




Sack Lunches

I put my carry-on in the

luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned

seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm

glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will

get a short nap,' I thought.



Just before take-off,

a line of soldiers came down the aisle and

filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding

me. I decided to start a conversation.



'Where are you

headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to

me.

'Petawawa. We'll be there for two

weeks for special training, and then we're being

deployed to Afghanistan



After

flying for about an hour, an announcement was

made that sack lunches were

available for five

dollars. It would be several hours before we

reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch

would help pass the time...



As I reached for my

wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if

he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems

like a lot of money for just a sack lunch.

Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks.

I'll wait till we get to base.'



His friend agreed.



I looked around at the

other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked

to the back of the plane and handed the flight

attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a

lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my

arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with

tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in

Iraq ; it's almost like you are doing it for

him.'

Picking up ten

sacks, she

headed up the aisle to where the

soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and

asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or

chicken?'

'Chicken,' I replied,

wondering why she asked. She turned and went to

the front of plane, returning a minute later

with a dinner plate from first class.



'This is your thanks.'



After we finished

eating, I went again to the back of the plane,

heading for the rest room.

A

man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to

be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me

twenty-five dollars.



Soon after I returned

to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down

the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he

walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but

noticed he was looking at the

numbers only on my

side of the plane. When he got to my row he

stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, 'I

want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my

seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand.

With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier

and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought

me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never

forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was

heard from all of the passengers.



Later I walked to the

front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A

man who was seated about six rows in front of me

reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He

left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.



When we landed I

gathered my belongings and started to deplane.

Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man

who stopped me, put something in my shirt



pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a

word. Another twenty-five dollars!



Upon entering the

terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their

trip to the base.

I walked over to

them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It

will take you some time to reach the

base.

It

will be about time for a sandwich.

God

Bless You.'

Ten young

men left that flight feeling the love and

respect of their fellow travelers.



As I walked briskly to

my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe

return. These soldiers were giving their all for

our country. I could only give them a couple of

meals. It seemed so little...



A veteran is someone

who, at one point in

his life, wrote a blank

check made payable to 'The United States of

America ' for an amount of 'up to and

including my life.'



That is Honor, and

there are way too many people in this country

who no longer understand it.

[Robja]

Thanks for the post NY Bearhunter. Great read. It hit home since I found out this morning one of the people i Have insured who recently got married. Her husband was on the Helecopter that got shot down in Afganastan. If
it wasn't for our soldiers we wouldn't have the freedoms to post on places like this.

[seapower]

I want to be carefull about this reponse. It is about "us vs them". Longfisher is of an academic back ground. I am of a more simplistic background. He see's thing's as they could be, I see them as they are. Case in point, I trouble shoot an engine, I don't care about all the engineering that went into the product, I see the problem and fix it. I run into this sort of thing literally all the time.

There are "thinker's and there are do'er's". Sorta like bear hunting, when you and I see a bear rumbling our way dead on, they see a 1 1/2 maybe 2 year old "kid bear". Point is we see what is in front of us and deal with it, they tend to think deeper into the situation and thus get eaten by the bear. Get it? I can allow myself to sit here and loathe the very existence of folk's like LongFisher, but what's the point? It's illegal to kill them, if you hear of a "season" sign me up!!!!!! I have seen many post's by this man on other forum's (yes it's easy) and it all boil's down to the same tbing. We just see thing's differently. He ask's question's on other site's that I think are idiotic, but then he post's thing's that are of "deeper" thought that I could care less about. For example, is the bear hungry or is he just pissed? Doesn't matter to me, I don't care. Dead bear, problem solved. You see, we are just more "simple minded".

I see people like him as simply moronic, but they are too intelligent to know the difference. I've seen his post's on other site's where he's actually quite complacent, but then it's generally when he has a question for us lower life form's(about his truck, car, or outboard). It's really OK, do with him as you will. In the end, it won't amount to an ounce of sweat off our behind's. Frank

[gottaflylee]

What a great post, hope you don't mind if I snitch this.

[Big Fish Billy]

My grandson is 3, he evidently heard his mother saying something bad about someone, his reply "you shouldn't talk about people, everyone is different," kind of wise for a 3 year old, I like everyone on here, you never know when you're going to learn something.......

[longfisher]

LF AKA Osama Bin LongFisher by Frank who complained about me citing him as Pee-Power.

[marine4003]

i heard that too..saw on the news where 'ol Frank took a wiz outside...caused a sinkhole 1/2 mile deep..pee power for sure...Go-Boyyyyyyy

[Catcher's Mitt]

love it. thanks for posting it Bearhunter.

[Agitated88]

Good one NYB...

[Captain Michael Buffington]

I want to be carefull about this reponse. It is about "us vs them". Longfisher is of an academic back ground. I am of a more simplistic background. He see's thing's as they could be, I see them as they are. Case in point, I trouble shoot an engine, I don't care about all the engineering that went into the product, I see the problem and fix it. I run into this sort of thing literally all the time.

There are "thinker's and there are do'er's". Sorta like bear hunting, when you and I see a bear rumbling our way dead on, they see a 1 1/2 maybe 2 year old "kid bear". Point is we see what is in front of us and deal with it, they tend to think deeper into the situation and thus get eaten by the bear. Get it? I can allow myself to sit here and loathe the very existence of folk's like LongFisher, but what's the point? It's illegal to kill them, if you hear of a "season" sign me up!!!!!! I have seen many post's by this man on other forum's (yes it's easy) and it all boil's down to the same tbing. We just see thing's differently. He ask's question's on other site's that I think are idiotic, but then he post's thing's that are of "deeper" thought that I could care less about. For example, is the bear hungry or is he just pissed? Doesn't matter to me, I don't care. Dead bear, problem solved. You see, we are just more "simple minded".

I see people like him as simply moronic, but they are too intelligent to know the difference. I've seen his post's on other site's where he's actually quite complacent, but then it's generally when he has a question for us lower life form's(about his truck, car, or outboard). It's really OK, do with him as you will. In the end, it won't amount to an ounce of sweat off our behind's. Frank

POETRY TO US SIMPLE FOLK...

Mike