couldn't let this pass

I dont know where this was published but it was to great to let go it go


The ‘best compliment’

I was sitting in uniform in the SeaTac [Seattle/Tacoma, Wash.] airport the other day, waiting on my daughter’s plane to come in. While I was sitting there, this boy around 6 years of age kept staring at me. After a while, his family moved to the counter to check on their flight.When this little man walked past me, smiling from ear to ear, yet showing intimidation in his eyes, his mother told him, “Well, ask him, son.”I looked over at her young man and he stood at attention, cocked his head and asked, “Excuse me, sir ... are you a soldier?” I smiled broadly and said, “I sure am.” The little boy’s mouth opened wide, and he covered his mouth with both hands. Then he did something that made me realize the importance of my job. That little boy stood back at attention, saluted me and said, “Thank you, sir.” Then he looked at his mother and said, “Mommy, that’s a good man, he is a soldier!”The little boy rejoined his family, but stopped briefly, turned back to me, yanked out of his mother’s hand and ran over to me and gave me a hug.His mother apologized. I responded with a wavering voice, “Ma’am, I have just been given the best compliment I could ever be given; thank you for your son.”

Capt. Donald Brakeville Tacoma, Wash.