Bubba's Bar 'n' Grill

Last time I flew United they acknowledged a couple Marines returning home, but some of the others dont even bother. My wife said that Southwest didn't three years ago on her trip out to Oregon.

I don't fly much any more though.

It's too bad that not everyone will at least acknowledge and appreciate those who are in the service. Some folks are so against the war that they take it out on those being sent to serve, as if it were the their fault. Some companies do that too.

My great-aunt lost a grandson over in Iraq a few years ago (helicopter crash). He was in his early 20's and left behind a young widow. Those servicemen (& women) families deserve our respect regardless of our feelings for whatever missions they're sent out to do.

The 1st time my son was deployed to Afghanistan, we went back to NC for a quick visit before he left. There was a young Army man waiting for a MUCH later flight to return home from deployment. He sat by himself and no one talked to him. My husband and I befriended him and I think he was grateful to have someone help him pass the time.
My son is stationed at Camp LeJeune. When he 1st flew back, the airline acknowledged him and let him get off the plane first. Everyone applauded! At first, he didn't realize all the fuss was over him. He was embarrassed

(06-01-2011 02:21 PM)Gungawoman Wrote: [ -> ]The 1st time my son was deployed to Afghanistan, we went back to NC for a quick visit before he left. There was a young Army man waiting for a MUCH later flight to return home from deployment. He sat by himself and no one talked to him. My husband and I befriended him and I think he was grateful to have someone help him pass the time.
My son is stationed at Camp LeJeune. When he 1st flew back, the airline acknowledged him and let him get off the plane first. Everyone applauded! At first, he didn't realize all the fuss was over him. He was embarrassed

That made me smile

(06-01-2011 02:21 PM)Gungawoman Wrote: [ -> ]The 1st time my son was deployed to Afghanistan, we went back to NC for a quick visit before he left. There was a young Army man waiting for a MUCH later flight to return home from deployment. He sat by himself and no one talked to him. My husband and I befriended him and I think he was grateful to have someone help him pass the time.
My son is stationed at Camp LeJeune. When he 1st flew back, the airline acknowledged him and let him get off the plane first. Everyone applauded! At first, he didn't realize all the fuss was over him. He was embarrassed

Now THATS neat!

I remember when I served though - folks weren't near as forgiving or respectful. We had folks who loved to protest the Navy, nuclear weapons, overweight sailors, big ships you name it. My how times thhey have a changed. Thank goodness too, because I fear the thought of these men and women coming home like I did, or like my uncle did from Vietnam.

(06-01-2011 08:47 PM)boomer Wrote: [ -> ]Now THATS neat!

I remember when I served though - folks weren't near as forgiving or respectful. We had folks who loved to protest the Navy, nuclear weapons, overweight sailors, big ships you name it. My how times thhey have a changed. Thank goodness too, because I fear the thought of these men and women coming home like I did, or like my uncle did from Vietnam.

When Jordan signed up, you wouldn't believe the things some people said to him. It was appalling! He was angry at first, but he truly realizes that he is protecting the rights of people to say those things.

It would be a different world if every single person had to live one month in some shtthole of a country.
Heck, try Israel. See how you sleep at night surrounded by people that want your entire race removed from the face of the earth.
Spend a week at the Hotel de Sierra Leone. Not real big on room service... or clean water... or food... or health services... or overall safety, but hey - they give free lessons in limb removal with machetes!
Like I taught my daughters: "Learn to bitch correctly."

Ok - I'm done now...

Well! Feel better?

I tell my daughters that almost weekly. I think they get spoiled by the freedom of running off to the mall, or the movies. In some countries - a color tv would be nice! Or clean water. Perhaps a bed WITHOUT the springs jabbing you in the nethers.

A Marine friend of mine who is pretty darn good with all sorts of those kinds of weapons one told me when I asked him how he acquired such....skills..."Vietnam".

Mufasa and Boomer,
Right on Guys!

Try the Dominican Republic, where there is little electricity. How about having your house burn down because your little child knocked over the kerosene lamp?

Our school raised money for solar lanterns this year for them.
Our kids are poor, but they aren't THAT poor! They at least have the electricity to run their video games, and the money to buy them. Some people have no idea what the rest of world is like. Send them off to get educated!

I agree - a lot of people (and not just kids,) in the USA are so devoid of any experience with what's the norm in countries without our Constitution or politico-economic system that they've become a whole lot like spoiled brats. One of the best ways to educate one's own kids is to take them traveling, both in one's home country and abroad, with at least one mandatory experience in a country where things are not quite as good as we've got it.

Toilet technology is a great focus, because you can go to a country that's otherwise fairly civilized, like France or Thailand, but which has some really weird, funky, and often primitive toilets. Nothing brings the point home faster and more thoroughly than trucking happily around Paris, sampling the groovy museums and incredible delis and random tourist sites, then finding oneself face-to-face with one of those Wagner-Low-Rider-Pro-Oil-Change squat loos with the gnurly foot treads on each side. Particularly if the guy in there before you...you get the picture.

Or Thailand, where in addition to the ubiquitous squat models, all the flushing is done manually: There's no lever and no plumbing to the toilet itself, but rather a spigot off to the side with a large reservoir below it with a plastic bowl floating in it. You dip and pour, dip and pour, dip and pour - all the while struggling not to splash - until everything's washed down. Coming home to the standard Toto or Kohler or American Standard models gains a whole new perspective.

Speaking of perspectives (and Thailand,) here's the steepest, deepest and longest freakin' stairway I've ever traversed (this was late November 2010,) located inside a Khmer-style tomb at the ruins of Wat Ratchaburana in the Ayutthaya district, about 40 miles straight north of Bangkok...



It goes down to a tiny doorway that you have to crawl through, to stand up inside a room about the size of a large phone booth, where presumably someone's mortal remains were kept.
Here's the outside of it:



.