It wasn't as expected. In the USO room at the San Antonio International Airport things were quiet, subdued. This was 'exodus weekend' and this airport is a hub for several bases. Airport officials expected 6,000 to 8,000 military personnel to cross over their tarmac.
Soldiers here were sleeping or catching up with emails and Facebook posts...or zoning out on rows of recliners to watch a movie. Paused. Staff said many had been too excited to sleep last night, so they arrived early in anticipation. Now they are in a holding pattern, waiting to go home.
For the soldier, the military is orderly, defined, impersonal. But where they are going, it is very personal.
It doesn't take much to imagine what that will be like. Moms, Dads, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, BFF's waiting there with their heart in their throats and an empty place between their arms.
If you could capture that moment when they finally come together, if you could put that moment in a little glass bottle and seal it with a small gold cap, and hand it out to every world leader, every legislator, every tyrant, every person blinded by greed, every lonely person, every hurt person, every empty person, every person in need of compassion, then we may at last know peace.
