During the first Gulf War, my brother and I had gone out to eat with our stepfather who is a Vietnam vet and a purple heart recipient. While we were eating, three uniformed military members came into the resteraunt. My stepdad called the waitress over and requested that after they order, she bring their check over to him. My brother and I kind of looked at him funny as if to say "why". I will never forget his response and this is the verbatum quote: "After the way we were treated when we came home from Vietnam, I swore that as long as I'm alive, I would do something to make sure that no other returning war vets are treated the same way. So what I have been doing is make sure that during wartime, no military personell will pay for their meal in my presence." My brother and I have since picked up the same practice. Of course my brother tends to come across military personel when he's dining at Taco Bell, I seem to always see them at Olive Garden. We will, when possible do it annonymously (impossible to do at Taco Bell) unless the person recieving the meal insists on knowing, then we allow the waitress to tell them.
This practice has been extremely rewarding. Once we were eating breakfast in FL when we saw a group of about 25 Army Rangers that were seated near us. I was leary of spending over $100 on breakfast, but my wife insisted that we maintain our practice. I relented. The soldiers insisted on knowing who paid for their breakfast. I had failed to notice that the guy who was sitting at the head of the table was in a wheelchair. He rolled himself over to me to shake my hand and allowed me to thank him. He had lost his legs to an IED and most of the guys eating breakfast with him had served with him in Iraq. I have not worried about the cost of the meal ever since.
I know some of you who live near military bases would not be able to do this or you would be buying meals every time you went out to eat. But the rest of us can do our part to thank our local heros any time we see them out. Please join us in saying thanks to our troops.
