God Bless our Boys who Serve

Yesterday our youngest brother (of 8) went to "work". He was assigned the duty, from his National Guard commanding officers, the task of being part of the fly over crew. So he got us all tickets to the Angels game, and with tears in our eyes we got a glimpse of his job, while "playing". After the National Anthem was done being sung, from across the stadium, came 2 Black Hawk choppers flying over. The second helicopter held our brother leaning out of the helicopter looking dangerous (taking pictures actually!). They flew threw the stadium with cheers, screaming and clapping in support of the real work that they actually do. The entire stadium went nuts with the pride being shown to what these men / boys do. My kids were screaming at the top of their lungs, with their cousins, for their Uncle Jeff who they are so incredibly proud of, at such a young age. We thought at that point they were done, but WAIT there was more, they came around and circle the stadium at an angle that would have made me sick, and the cheering got louder, if you can believe that. The crowd was really going nuts now. Then we watched as they flew off into the sunset and it was magical.

At the top of the 6th inning the announcers once again gave honor to these men, and brought them to the top of the Angel's dugout. There they stood (ours is second from the left partially facing the field), waving. If the crowd went nuts the first two times, it was unexpected the amount of support they received during the time when the bodies had faces. There they stood, both crews in their camo uniforms representing one of our branches. Again, for me the tears flowed as it did for most of the military families we were sitting with. These weren't just any men on top of the dugout, who we were giving honor to, they were OUR men. Men in our family, who we are on this journey with, no matter what may be asked of them. 40 thousand attendees were paying honor and giving their thanks to OUR boys, and you couldn't help but be proud of them.

God Bless America indeed. God, please bless these men and boys who are so willing to do a job that so few actually can do.

It brought home the meaning of today, and was an amazing way to start the celebrating of what today means for our family. Happy 4th to all of you and your families as you celebrate today.