"Greeters Report to Gate #5"

I've wanted to join the The Maine Troop Greeters for nearly a year and this week, I did it.  On Wednesday I was there, at Gate #5, psyched to welcome my first group of servicemen and woman home from the war. 

I fly through the Bangor International Airport a lot (remember it from the Stephen King movie, The Langoliers?) and I've seen the Troop Greeters there at all hours of the day, clapping, shaking hands, giving hugs, offering free cell phones and despite a recent controversy, giving out cookies to all those in uniform.  I've heard them cheering from across the terminal when I've taken the 5:45am flight to New York.  I've seen them handing out their cookies when I've landed late at night.  And yesterday, they were there at 4:15pm to greet a flight from Dresden (a pit stop between the Middle East and the U.S.).  One hundred and twenty-five airmen were coming home on that plane after 2 months away and this time I was standing in the greeter line too, ready to offer a warm welcome home.

"Two months is nothing," I heard one greeter say about this particular group's tour of duty and I didn't doubt him. I learned that many of the greeters had served in the military themselves and as a non-profit group they had met over 400,000 servicemen and women in this airport since May 2003.  They had met people coming home from, or embarking on, all sorts of missions to the Middle East.  Some were on short stints like this group's and others were away from home for 18 months or more.

From my point of view, it all seems long.  As a frequent business traveler, I know that even 2 weeks away can sometimes feel like forever, especially when I can't easily talk to anyone that really knows me, when I can't get home for a family emergency or celebration, or when I'm just plain tired.  When I step off the plane from a trip like that, I find myself infatuated with, and nearly intoxicated by the familiar -- faces, places, events.  I just want to immerse myself in it all.

Unfortunately, there were no familiar faces meeting Wednesday's flight.  Those men and women were still far from their friends and family but you'd never know it by the way they walked out of Gate #5.  Their smiles were endless, their handshakes hearty (often with two hands or a half hug) and they mingled as if at a reunion.  They were eating up the attention (and the cookies) and I couldn't help but wonder if their experiences in the last 2 months had been so utterly foreign, that being among a group of complete strangers was intoxicatingly familiar for them. 

Whether it was that or something completely different that fueled their smiles on Wednesday afternoon, the elation was contagious.  I left smiling and hoping that all 125 of those airmen get to revel in their own form of happy familiar for a long time to come.

By the way, this is one Never B4 thing that I will definitely do again.  If anyone wants to join in, write to:  troopgreeters@prexar.com and they'll call you the next time a flight is coming in or going out of Bangor Airport.   

Comments

[C...B...]

A few of you have asked me if there are other Greeter programs at Airports around the US. I did a bit of research and came across an organization called Homefront Hugs USA that had some good advice. They said to contact the USO office at the major airport near your home because most of the major airports have troops coming or going.
Here's a link to the Homefront Hugs site:
http://www.homefronthugs.com/index.html

And here's a link to the USO website where you can find their office locations.

http://www.uso.org/whoweare/findyourlocaluso/uscenters/

And lastly, if any of you live near Dallas, the DFW airport seems to have a large troop greeter program. It's called the R&R Program. Here's a link:
http://www.dfwairport.com/heroes/index.html

Let me know if any of you have luck greeting a flight.

[Karen Perrin]

A few weeks ago, I got an email about supporting our troops. It basically said that if you were against the war - you were not in support of the troops - you are living proof that this is not so. Good for you.

[Marci Alboher]

I love this idea Cathy (the blog generally, but this specific idea of joining the greeters). Do you know if there is a place to research whether greeter organizations like this exist in other cities?

As for the new things, at the end of each year when I'm reflecting on the year past, I think about some goals I want to accomplish for the next year and I write them down. But it's a few things over the course of a whole year. Your blog is making me think of smaller things I can do in my daily life that will satisfy the "new experience" urge.

[Dave]

This entry really made me smile and think about those things that are "home" to me. It also made me proud.

I have found this blog motivating - in fact, it motivated me to do some neverB4s of my own. Today, I attended not just one, but two political events - things that I would have shunned before I found myself so enraged by the actions of this administration.
I am not prone
to being interested in politics, but I hate to see our best and brightest (thanks, John Kerry, NOT) and especially our national guard, who should be guarding our nation, not fighting elective foreign wars, dying for "big oil".

I attended Hillary Clinton's "town hall" at the University of Maine at Orono, the university that I will hopefully get a doctorate from some time in the next few years. I also attended Barak Obama's rally in Bangor, ME (home of Stephen King, UMaine alum, and the world's most successful author). I found them both hugely motivational, and I found the things that were said echoing and addressing the frustrations that I have been feeling the past seven years as a proud citizen of this formerly great country. I no longer doubt that our country can be great again.

By the way, in between these two events, I found the time to stop at "Bangor Slots", (the third neverB4), and then WON 75 cents on a five dollar "investment"! (the fourth neverB4 - I always lose at slots) WOOO HOOOOO!!!!