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Florida US Army Reserve
LTC (R) John T. "Tim" Leadbeater, USAR This letter was written submitted to the Honor Grounds website by LTC John "Tim" Leadbetter USAR.
The Unknown or Un-named Airborne Soldier I Met on a Flight to Charlotte I was on a flight from Tallahassee to Charlotte in the late afternoon of June 26, 2008 and ended up sitting next to someone I immediately identified as either a Marine or Airborne/Ranger soldier even though he was in civilian clothes. He was sporting what I knew from personal experience was a ranger haircut. He was not overly friendly and up until take-off he had headphones in place listening to something on his I-Pod. In preparation for take-off, he removed his headphones and I took the opportunity to say something to him asking him what for me was a rhetorical question "are you in the Service?" and "where are you stationed?" and "how long have you been in?" He said he was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with the 101st Airborne Division and that he had been in the service 21 years entering active duty in 1987. I mentioned that I had served in the 82d Airborne and was now a retired soldier after 30 years of service on active duty and in the Reserves, enlisted and commissioned. He responded that he had served 10 years in the 82d Airborne Division. That was the extent of our conversation as he immediately put his headphones back on after take-off until we started preparations to land in Charlotte about an hour later. In spite of the fact that he wasn't overly friendly, I again initiated a conversation with him as we prepared to land (and his headphones were off). During the flight I had been thinking, this soldier has undoubtably experienced war first hand and I wanted him to know how much I appreciated his service. I asked him if he had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. He responded that he had two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan and was returning to Afghanistan in the fall for another 18 month tour. I then mentioned that I had been activated in October of 2001 and deployed to Camp Doha for ten months as an Army comptroller in support of Opration Enduring Freedom. Based on his 21 years of service I guessed he was either a Sergeant First Class (E-7) or a Master Sergeant/First Sergeant (E-8) so I asked him if he was either. He surprised me by telling me he was a Captain which told me he had been enlisted and then became an officer. I said "that's cool man I was enlisted too (an Army Ranger) and went through Officer Candidate School". This is where the conversation got very interesting as he started to bare his soul to me. He told me he didn't go to Officer Candidate School he had received a direct, battlefield commission to Lieutenant in Baghdad in 2003 when he was an E-8 First Sergeant in his company (the senior enlisted rank in a company). "Wow" was all I could say. In fact, he had been promoted to E-8 after 14 years of service which is incredibly fast to make E-8. He told me he had been in Panama in 1989 when we removed Noriega from power and he was in Somalia with the 10th Mountain Division in 1993 when we evacuated after the Blackhawk Down fiasco. He was now the CO of an MP company in the 101st Airborne. This nameless American soldier then started to tell me about how brutal our enemies were based on his personal experiences. He also expressed the opinion that unlike World War II where the entire nation was mobilized in support of the war effort, this war was disproportionately effecting a relatively small segment of our population and that this was not good. I said to him "I bet you feel under appreciated". That's when he really unloaded. He made it clear that he believed (and I concurred) that most Americans have no idea of the perils we face and how tenuous our freedoms are. While most Americans are grousing about gas prices, or the price of airfare or some other trivial, inconsequential event, a few and their families are putting it all on the line to keep us free and yes, be self-absorbed with the trivial. This soldier suspects most of us do not appreciate the sacrifices he and others like him are making for us. I now knew why he had been somewhat reclusive and less than friendly to those around him on the plane. And, when I told him I understood his frustrations and honored his service, his appreciation was visible on his battle-hardened face. So I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to sit with one of our heros as I did recently and they aren't initially receptive to your attempts to start a conversation, be patient with them and look for the opportunity to sincerely thank them for all they do for us. After all they have been patient with us. |