Remembering the Troops Who Responded To 9/11 and To This Date Fight The Enemy of America

As some of you know, I am out in Washington, D.C. this weekend for the 912 rally tomorrow.

I'm also out here for an event that is carried on every Friday night at Walter Reed Army Medical Center but which holds a special meaning on the weekend of the 9/11 memory.

I wrote the comment below at a blog today and felt that perhaps I would share it with all of you as last night was an emotional one.

I ask each of you to keep our servicemen and servicewomen in your hearts and prayers today. After 9/11, America decided to fight back and we continue that fight today. Without our troops, we would have lost the battle, we may have lost the war against this dark enemy. We owe our lives, our freedom to these warriors of ours on the battlefield, at home in places like Walter Reed and those veterans that have fought and served.

Here's the special moment that happened last night - one I will never, ever forget:

I’d like to share this: Last night, about 100 or so of us were down at the entrance of Walter Reed Army Medical Center with our “Support the Troops” signs and American flags…there were 3 Code Pinkers. We were on all four corners of the entrance on Georgia Avenue.

About 8:30 p.m., a young soldier, dressed in civvies, appeared at the one corner across the street from me – he was shaking hands with our guys over there. He then proceeded to walk across Georgia Ave to a thunderous round of applause and the car horns blaring from dozens and dozens of cars that stopped as he crossed the street, it took some time as I believe he was fairly new to his prosthetic leg. He met us on our corner, I shook his hand, I told him “thank you for your service, soldier, you have no idea how proud of you I am.” He walked across the street two more times as he shook every hand of every person there – his words were simple and heartfelt. He said to each of us:

“Thank you for doing this. You just can’t know how much it means to us to see you out here.”

This soldier was 19 or 20 years old.