Wednesday, November 12, 2008

To Any Service Member




During the Persian Gulf War, I was stationed aboard the naval amphibious ship USS Nassau. As a senior Marine intelligence analyst, my workdays were routinely twelve to sixteen hours long. Like all the veterans, we looked forward to receiving mail from home.
Unlike the Vietnam War, the Gulf War found support among most Americans. As a result, we soldiers received an enormous amount of 'To any service member' mail from the States. I never took any of those letters, since I wrote to my wife and two children on a daily basis, as well as, occasionally writing notes to my daughter's classroom, and I didn't feel I had time to write to anyone else.

After five or six months of hearing the mail orderly announcing the availability of 'To any service member” mail, I decided to take a few of the letters. I planned, as time permitted, to drop them a line telling them 'thanks' for their support.
I picked up three letters, and placed them in my cargo pocket and proceeded back to work. Over the next week or so, I started responding to the letters. When it came time to answer the third letter, I noticed it had no return address, but a Colorado postmark, which made me think of home. I had missed spending Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's with my family, and I was really lonesome for them.

I opened the card and started to read the letter enclosed. About the third or fourth sentence down, it read, “My daddy is a Marine over there. If you see him, tell him hi and I love and miss him.' This statement really touched me and made me miss my family even more. I looked down to the signature and sat in stunned silence as tears filled my eyes.
My own daughter, Chris, had signed the letter.

--Nick Hill


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Thanks to BlueStar Families for sharing this beautiful post!

14 comments:

Kellan said...

Oh, this brought tears to my eyes - what a sweet letter and a great post! Thanks - Kellan

Tami said...

WOW Kleenex moment for sure.
Thanks for sharing this.


aam

Unknown said...

kellan...it is such a heart warming story!

Donna said...

I'm grabbing another tissue. Golly, what are the odds of him getting his own daughter's letter!

Unknown said...

aam...truly, an amazing story of love and support!

Unknown said...

donna... you are not alone! This story has brought tears to my eyes, each time I have read it. I choked up trying to read it to my hubster.

SS+1 said...

that's incredibly touching!

Unknown said...

ss+1... thank you so much for stopping by!

Mike Golch said...

that was touching.especially the very lat sentence.I hve tears in my eyes now after reading this posting.

Unknown said...

mike...these words are extremely moving. Thanks for stopping by.

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

How do you do it? I was just reading your blog and you left me a comment on mine!! Your timing is uncanny!!

This post is awesome.

Hallie :)

Unknown said...

hallie...I'm so glad you stopped by!

kathleen's kit up said...

Amazing...sometimes God just lets us know that there He is,confirming love to us as we walk this journey. So beautiful, Thank you so much for sharing this story and for your encouragment on my blog too!
Kathleen

Unknown said...

kathleen...it's always good to read your comments, thank you! I'll be by to read you soon!