Welcome Home Soldiers

This morning Mom and I drove down to the airport and welcomed home the soldiers coming in from Afghanistan and Iraq. It was quite an experience. When we got there, we picked up some flags from the USO volunteers--they remembered me from my last trip to their office! We waited until it was announced that the plane had landed, then we all lined up in front of the door. The patriotic music began, the doors flew open, and soldier after soldier, about 150 on this flight, came through our assembly. We shook their hands, waved our flags, and said "welcome home heroes!" The family members got to stand at the front of the line so there were lots of hugs and kisses too. These soldiers are all on long deployments but get to come in for a 2 week r&r. All r&r flights come in to 1 of 2 airports--Dallas or Atlanta--but Dallas is the only one that has a welcome reception. Those that aren't from Dallas are met at the end of the receiving line by a volunteer who directs them to their connecting flight or to the USO office where they can have a snack, watch tv, or get on the internet. It was so neat, and we're so close to the airport, we're definitely going to do it again soon. Here are some photos showing the setup.