By Bill York
The email simply said Gift. I recognized the name of the sender. It was from my grandson who is serving in the Navy somewhere in the Middle East. It looked like spam. I emailed him and asked if his email address had been compromised. He said no that a gift was coming for me.
I was like a kid anticipating a present at Christmastime.
The family is ex-military, a son served on the aircraft carrier America in Vietnam, another with 20 years in the Army. I spent two years in the Mediterranean during WW II. And now I have a grandson who says he is career Navy, a lieutenant, maybe end up a captain.
I like gifts. As a kid on the farm during the Depression, I got mittens, one year a Boy Scout knife and not much else. I looked forward to the gift from the Persian Gulf.
While on a train trip from Blue Ridge up into Tennessee, I asked my son if he knew what I was getting from the Middle East.
He said he had no idea.
“Is it bigger than a bread box?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes twinkled. I knew that he knew.
A few days later my wife said the mailman had left something on the back porch. I hurried out to get the package and I opened it with anticipation.
It was an American flag, and made in America. My eyes began to mist as I read the certificate of authenticity. This is to certify that this flag was flown over the skies of Afghanistan in the 27th of September 2012, carried by VXS-1’s NP-3D Orion, Bureau Number 154587 while conducting Project Perseus II in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM.
With great appreciation for your support we present this representation of all that is free to: MR. WILLIAM YORK.
I have another flag that accompanied my brother’s body back from Bastogne where he was killed in 1944, at the Battle of the Bulge, one month before he would have become 21. Johnny was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division.
I became aware of the American flag during ceremonies at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in 1943. I listened to the crisp snapping of the flag on the masts of vessels on which I served. I marvel at the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. Changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery is impressive, the passing of the flag, memorable.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Bill York has lived in Stone Mountain for 35 years. Reach him at sioux2222@gmail.com
