Times/News

I'm proud to be an American

where at least I know I'm free,

And I won't forget the men who

died who gave that right to me,

And I gladly stand up next to you

and defend her still today....

"God Bless the USA"

by Lee Greenwood

It was the best flight I've been on - ever.

Never mind that I was one of the passengers who had to wait longer than usual before stepping out of the plane.

Or that several of us were misty eyed when we finally did.

In fact, I was honored - if only by random timing - to be on that Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Boise two weeks ago (where I would spend a few days with my father, who turns 94 this month).

And I was proud!

Because our fellow passengers included 80 members of the Idaho Army National Guard returning home after serving a year with the 116th Combat Brigade in Iraq.

These men and women are amazing.

They walked off the Boeing 737 not with a swagger but with quiet confidence - in themsleves, in their band of brothers and sisters, in the job they did for us and the Iraqis half a world away as they fought terrorism and built a nation.

"Thank you for what you did," I said to several of them.

"That's okay," a few answered with a nod.

"No, thank you," others said - an unspoken reference to the support they received from their fellow Americans back home.

Another looked me straight in the eye and shot back, "No problem!"

All were happy - understandably - to be home at last. Many looked forward to civilian life. Yet others were planning another tour of duty in Iraq.

Those with whom I spoke knew, despite the headlines, that a majority of Americans support both our troops and their mission in this long twilight struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.

Sgt. Paige Dahlgard, a 2000 Highline High School graduate whose recent service with the Army National Guard in Iraq is the focus of a story on page 1, told me how important this support is.

Expressing her appreciation, Sgt. Dahlgard said she is "thankful ... for the support myself and other American soldiers received from the American public. Donations, cards, care packages, there's not a single troop out there who isn't grateful."

Yet it is us at home who owe them - and all who served before them - a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay.

Former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, a Democrat, said it well when he declared at the 2004 Republican National Convetion, 'it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

"It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest....

"[O]ur soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home."

That's why, on Friday, we honor again our fighting men and women - those now or recently in uniform and retired military veterans from World War II, from Korea and Vietnam and the Cold War, from smaller conflicts and the Gulf War.

Thank you, all, for your service and sacrifice.

Back home on the farm, where there is a lot of lawn with lots of trees, blowing and burning fallen leaves topped my "to-do" list.

It kept me busy. If I did more of that, I'd be back in shape in no time!

The crisp late-October air and the view of corn standing in nearby fields waiting for harvest brought back memories of coming home from football practice in the waning daylight, then hurrying out to feed white-faced cattle before dark.

Missing, however, was the "pop" of 12-gauge shotguns firing at pheasants flying out of those cornfields and cover along ditchbanks. More people building houses in the country mean less habitat for game birds.

Then again, I never was that good of a shot!

Ralph Nichols' views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Robinson Newspapers. Nichols can be reached at newsdesk@robinsonnews.com, or at 206-444.4873.