After Saturday’s crowd of 9,000 had been reduced to tears when images of Sept. 11’s heroes were displayed on the giant tent’s multi-storied projection screens, no one could have thought any hero could grace that same stage area and command respect and admiration like those firemen and policemen.
Not football heroes, not action heroes. Not political nor media stars.
But the day’s surprise guests did just that.
Navy Lt. Shane Osborn and co-pilot Lt. John Comerford were greeted in true American fashion, and the ocean of waving flags was more frantic than throughout the long day. Patrons gave the two lieutenants a standing ovation and waved their flags for the pilot and co-pilot of the U.S. spy plane shot down over China in April.
Osborn was so choked up over his greeting that he cut his speech to a mere five minutes or less.
But the audience didn’t have to be reminded that the pilots and their crew of 22 others had been captured by the Chinese after discarding sensitive equipment in their top-secret plane and crash landing. They spent 11 days in Chinese hands before President Bush issued his form of an apology.
When the two came, almost unanounced, into the Media Tent afterward, I was more than pleased. I was extremely moved that I was going to be able to get perspective from two officers who have had experience in war-like situations. I had been looking for insight on how to deal with my brother being away, also in the Navy.
“How do you tell your family that you are going to war, and how do they prepare for the fact that you might not come back?” I asked in the brief question-and-answer time given the media. I had been struggling with that question for some time.
Telling families is not easy, no matter how times you have to do it.
“Your brother is going to be just fine. All you can do is write letters to him and support him,” Osborn said.
Though America’s armed forces may be gone for some time, the fight will be one-sided, Osborn explained.
“We have them out manned and out gunned,” he added.
Runner@csubak.edu