Welcoming Home a Hero!

Saturday was an awesome, awesome day!!!! A local friend of mine (I'll call her Princess, it's part of her screen name on a local message board) invited me to go with her and her family to the Atlanta airport to pick up their son (we'll call him...John. Since that's his name & all, haha) who was FINALLY coming home from The Sandbox!!!!!! :-) Our family had adopted John while he was overseas... he was a recipient of at least one, if not two, of the holiday card drives y'all helped make such a success. :) Needless to say, I was deeply touched that Princess would invite me to be part of such a special family moment.... and darn right, I jumped at the chance to be there! ;-) Few things are cooler than meeting one of your very own adopted Heroes that you've written to and sent stuff to and worried over and prayed over and cried over and written to more (etc) for at least a year!!! :-) So, Princess and I were talking (via email), and we were both all excited about The Imminent HomeComing.... and I said, "Hmmm.... I wonder if we could sweet-talk some Patriot Guard Riders into showing up???" Princess absolutely LOVED that idea, and (of course) so did I!!! So I sent some emails, did some asking, and thank God, John's homecoming became an official PGR "mission!" Normally, our primary mission is honoring those who have fallen and shielding the families from Unwanted Guests (protesters) at their loved one's funeral. However, whenever possible, we also attend "welcome home" events and "send-off" (deployment) events and other activities honoring those who serve or who have served. This was one of those happy, feel-good missions that we all really needed! :) So, for the better part of a week, the PGR ride captains worked out the logistical details, while I helped Princess get stuff for the suprise welcome home party she was having... decorations and such. :)
Finally, the big day was here!!!! The family decorated their van:



And off we went to the airport. We got caught in horrible traffic and feared we'd be late. His plane was due to land at 2:00 p.m. We arrived at Hartsfield at about... 1:50 or so, haha! Just in time!!!! Once we found where we were supposed to be (if you've never been to the Atlanta airport...it's HUGE!!!!!!!!!), I ran over to check the arrivals:



And yep, his plane had landed!!!!! Yay!!! What followed were twenty of the LONGEST minutes of my entire life... and I'm sure it seemed even longer than an eternity to his family!!!!! Finally.... HE WAS HERE!!!! :)



Yes, I was snapping pics like crazy... I knew they were too busy hugging the stuffing out of him (as it should be!) to worry about capturing these irreplaceable Kodak Moments.... and I wanted it all preserved for them..... well, till it was MY turn to hug the stuffin' out of him, haha!

Anyway, the first of many surprises for him was me being there (I know - NOT much of a surprise at all, haha! Luckily for him, the surprises got MUCH cooler as the day went on!). While we walked from the baggage claim area to the parking deck, I hung back a discrete distance and make a quiet phone call to the PGR ride captain, who, together with another one of the ride captains, was waiting in the wings for us to emerge from the parking garage. Sure enough, as we rolled out of the garage, two patriot guards appeared before us... one on a red motorcycle, one on a green. I'm sure they didn't PLAN on being so seasonally appropriate, but hey, Princess & I thought it was pretty cool it worked out that way! ;)



John thought this was really neat, of course. :) I told him, "Now, you didn't think you could just COME HOME and not get SOME kind of welcome, did you?!" heh heh heh >:-) Well, he thought that was all there was - just those two...

UNTIL.... about 11 miles from our ultimate destination, we pulled into a BP gas station, where about 20 more Patriot Guards were waiting for us!!!! :) When we pulled in, they all started clapping and cheering and hootin' & hollerin' & in general, giving him a real Hero's welcome! :) The LOOK on his face was absolutely PRICELESS! check this picture out! :) Yep...every bit of the planning and plotting was SO worth it! :)



Ah, but the surprises weren't over just yet!!! There was more to come! We left the BP station, with about 4 PGRs in front of our vehicle, and 20 or so behind, with American Flags flying. At this point, John (probably) still thinks he's just going home...but nope... Princess had rented a church gym to have a family gathering/welcome home party for him!!!! When we got to the church, we all took lots of pics and spent time talking, etc... oh yeah, and taking lots of pics:







And one of my favorite favorites: Me, John, and Princess:



While all the picture takin' & socializin' was going on, a scrapbook of "Welcome Home!" messages was being passed around for people to sign. See, for the Honor Missions we do for fallen soldiers, we make "condolence books," where all the condolence messages posted on the Patriot Guard forum are put together into a book and signed by the PGRs in attendance at the services. I thought it would be a cool idea to do something like that for the welcome home event, too... so everyone posted a bunch of welcome home messages and I put them into a simple scrapbook for folks to sign. Later on, I gave it to him:



All in all, everything went great... he seemed really blown away by the welcome home and all the support!!! :) It just seemed to me that he was really loving every minute of it... and that made me pretty darn happy!

I told him that 30 years from now, he'll be telling his grandkids about his return from the war, how he was welcomed home.... which will be a far, far different story than many of the Patriot Guard Riders had to share with THEIR grandkids, when they came home from Another War in a jungle far away...when they came back to either silence or insults or indifference or out-right hatred. NEVER AGAIN. EVER!

Judging by the almost constant, ear-to-ear grin on his face the whole day, I'd have to say....
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!! Thank you, PGR!!! :)




What a way to start Thanksgiving week!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Kat