Last week I had an extended family of friends visiting whose son-grandson-cousin-nephew, a 2007 graduate of West Point, was killed in Afghanistan two months prior.

Also, on Thursday of last week, as I walked mid-day around Gerar Lake I spotted a C17 military transport overhead heading into Dover Air Force Base - the same type of plane, if not the very plane that was transporting the body of Major General Harold Greene, the highest ranking officer killed in Afghanistan.

I wondered if my friend’s child also had returned to the United States in a similar transport in a similar flight path yet being somewhat more anonymous - unrecognized by too few for his sacrifice. As I later saw photos of the military guard removing Major General Greene’s American flag-draped casket from the airplane, I envisioned the same scene for my friend’s son or for any of the thousands who have returned to the United States the same way.

That week was an epiphany recognizing that our men and women currently serving in our military and those that already have served as well as those killed in the line of service deserve our prayers and thanks more frequently than weekly and on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day.

Now when I hear and see a military transport heading to Dover AFB, I look to the sky with more reverence and with a salute of my right hand while brushing away tears with my left.

Stan Mills
Rehoboth Beach