Got to my morning inspection figuring... just another home inspection. My client was wearing a MARINE cab and shirt. So I put 2 and 2 together and got it right for a change. We chatted about the service... what it was like for him being in it (he was pre-Nam by 1 year) and how the recruiter blew it (told me that because of my glasses the closest I would get to an airplane was to fill the tires with air) and I ended up not joining. I turned 18 the year the draft ended so I wasn't forced to go in. Anyway, to make a long story still long.... I mentioned how it saddens me when I shake the hand of a vet and thank him for his service and that look of shock, like they have never heard that before, comes over their faces.
He hands me a coin and tells me it a challenge coin and what they are for. It was in a small plastic case with the USMC logo on one side and Mt. Suribachi on the other dated 2005. He went to Iwo for the 60th anniversary of the flag being raised. Dignitaries would raise their own flag, get their photo taken and then it was the next guys turn. Years of rot on the rope and it broke. The young Marines present yanked the pole out of the ground, laid it down and changed out the rope. And the flag was raised once more on Iwo Jima, 60 years later. There was a reporter from a Guam newspaper there and he snapped a photo of the event. Blackie, my client also gave me a small print of the photo. He is the guy in the biker colors.
he handed me the coin and I thanked for it and once again for his service. He shook may hand saying, "Thanks for showing you don't have to wear a uniform to show you love your country." All in all... a pretty damn good day.
