God Bless America!

This was pretty cool. Friday, Cliff was surprised with a Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (Gold star in lieu of 4th award) for his MCA Navy Chaplain of the Year award back in April. So basically...he got an award for getting an award. Hmmm.....I guess they know what they are doing. Anyway, it was a lovely ceremony, and I'm glad that I was there for it.

After leaving the base theater, we hung out and chatted with folks for a bit, and then headed over to the cyber cafe for a cocoa. Colors started playing, but there were a lot of us milling about, chatting...so several people yelled above us "COLORS!" since we were too loud to hear the music playing. It was instantly silent, as we all faced the appropriate direction (toward flag circle...even though we couldn't actually see it) and saluted or put our hands over our hearts while the National Anthem played and the flag was run up the pole. The music sounded like it played in a tin can, but aside from a few birds chirping, it was all you could hear.

Maybe it was because I don't get "stuck" outside (as some say) for Colors very often, or maybe I was still in Pomp and Circumstance mode from the awards ceremony...but for whatever reason, I just welled up with emotion and tears streamed down my face. I felt like a dork, honestly. This little evolution has been part of my entire adult life (seriously...since boot camp 20 years ago!) but it still gets me a little every time...this time a LOT!

It reminded me of another one of my favorite memories about being a military family. When we were stationed at Miramar, we used to go to the base theater for the kid's matinee every Thursday (it was minimum day for school). It was an enormous theater, and it would be packed with kids (the child to adult ratio was very high because all of the after school programs and daycares brought their kids, too). You had to get there early to get a decent seat, and then you'd just have to sit and listen to this loud roar of all these kids chattering until the movie started...actually, until the National Anthem started...and it was like clockwork. It would go from deafening roar to complete silence (other than a collective whoosh of theater seats collapsing as each child rose to his or her feet and placed hand over heart) as soon as that giant, waving flag filled the screen and the anthem blared through the speakers. It nearly brought me to tears every time. John McCain's mom said it well..."A [military] family is a wonderful thing!"

I love that my children are growing up surrounded by patriotism and personal sacrifice for our country...but I am just as grateful that I am surrounded by those things. I'm so grateful to be a part of a military family...to know in a very personal way that freedom isn't free. (ONE percent. That's how many people serve our country in the military these days...ONE percent!) I will always be a sucker for a uniform, a waving flag, or a band playing something Sousa. I guess it's just in my blood...and connected somehow to my tear ducts!