Thankful

As the Thanksgiving weekend wraps up and the maddening rush towards Christmas is well underway, I have a moment to ponder why I am so thankful this year. I was home for Thanksgiving: I enjoyed spending time with my family, seeing relatives, eating way too much, watching all of my football teams lose, putting up the Christmas tree with the kids, and hanging Christmas lights on the house. Simple things really, yet so rewarding.

I will also be home for Christmas; if by home, I mean not flying the line. My family and I will be traveling to Texas so the kids can see their grandparents and cousins, as well as friends from my high school and college. I am quite fortunate to be able to be home for all of the holidays this year.

So, I can't help but think of others who are not so fortunate. Many of the airline pilots in my reserve squadron will be working the busiest travel days of the year, especially those not senior enough with their airline to bid time off during the holidays. But even they will be home within a day or so. The not-so-lucky ones will be flying for Uncle Sam over the holidays, perhaps grabbing a Thanksgiving dinner at a Denny's near an East Coast airbase in the middle of the night; or eating an in-flight meal while crossing the pond heading to Europe; or dining on schnitzel at a German gasthaus; or eating at a chow hall in one of the many outposts scattered across the Sandbox.

But even my brothers and sisters flying the line will be fortunate enough to be home within a week or two. And those flying over Thanksgiving will not likely be flying over Christmas, the way the schedule balances out. Usually if you work one holiday, they take pity on you for the next one.

I am thankful for the men and women whose time in the Sandbox far exceeds that of my fellow airlift pilots, who at most will spend 90 days at a deployed location in the Sandbox. While our overnight stays may not be in choice locations replete with 4-star resort hotels and fine restaurants, our tent cities do not compare to those in Iraq or Afghanistan, where the added threat of airbase attacks can rattle the calmest of nerves.

Those deployed over the holidays will not know the joy this year of carving the turkey with the family or seeing the joy on their kids' faces as they open their presents on Christmas morning. Many of them will miss more than a year in the lives of their families: birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, baptisms, family reunions, bar mitzvahs, three-day holiday weekends, their kids' proms, high school football games, boy scout campouts, and often the births of their children. Those moments, perhaps enjoyed from afar via video tape, internet, and phone calls, cannot be fully appreciated from thousands of miles away.

I am thankful for their sacrifices. I am thankful for their devotion to our nation and to one another. I am thankful that because of them, I am able to enjoy the peace and joy of this holiday season, knowing that they are standing watch for the rest of us. Because of them, our nation can enjoy the fruits of liberty; they have safeguarded our right to act and speak freely, without fear of reprisal. They are the keepers of the enduring experiment in democracy that started with our founding fathers, a system that allows criticism and dissent, even of those who preserve that system, often upon the sacrifice of life itself.

Thank you.