Mike Lanzetta
A gift from Iraq
There are moments, and then there are moments.
Heather Best is a patient of ours, a friend, and a soldier. She has 2 daughters. About 2 years ago as she was finishing up with her braces, we were all understandably saddened when we found out she was called to serve a year in Iraq. What did that mean, how safe would she be, what would happen to her daughters? As anyone who has seen a loved one leave for the unknown to represent our country on foreign soil, we were all proud, sad, and scared.
Heather returned from service the following year. Although her tour was difficult, she never showed it. In the course of events, our office offered her a small, thanking gesture on her behalf. We so often hear the phrase "Support our troops", but how often does one really get the chance to. It was the least we could do, and compared to what she sacrificed for us, relatively insignificant.
Today, we put braces on her youngest daughter. When they came in, we were met by Heather, her husband (and fellow soldier), and Colonel Michael A. Stone from Joint Operations and Training in Lansing, and the officer who took Heather to Iraq.
Col. Stone gathered the staff around to present us with a special gift for our small effort in helping to make one soldier's life a little easier: an American flag that was flown in Iraq, in Al-faw, at Saddam's palace and the present headquarters of General Petraeus, where Heather had served.
Let me tell you, it was a lesson in humility to be thanked by the very people who we cannot thank enough. All I could think to say was to tell Col. Stone he had gotten it backwards: we should be thanking them! While we were enjoying the benefits of a blessed life, they were risking their lives in a foreign,hostile world far from home and family. The event was a wonderful, moving moment. Not a dry eye in the house!
We will cherish this flag as a memory of how giving our military can be. Thank you so much Heather, for a wonderful moment, a wonderful memory, and for our wonderful life here in America.
A gift from Iraq
There are moments, and then there are moments.
Heather Best is a patient of ours, a friend, and a soldier. She has 2 daughters. About 2 years ago as she was finishing up with her braces, we were all understandably saddened when we found out she was called to serve a year in Iraq. What did that mean, how safe would she be, what would happen to her daughters? As anyone who has seen a loved one leave for the unknown to represent our country on foreign soil, we were all proud, sad, and scared.
Heather returned from service the following year. Although her tour was difficult, she never showed it. In the course of events, our office offered her a small, thanking gesture on her behalf. We so often hear the phrase "Support our troops", but how often does one really get the chance to. It was the least we could do, and compared to what she sacrificed for us, relatively insignificant.
Today, we put braces on her youngest daughter. When they came in, we were met by Heather, her husband (and fellow soldier), and Colonel Michael A. Stone from Joint Operations and Training in Lansing, and the officer who took Heather to Iraq.
Col. Stone gathered the staff around to present us with a special gift for our small effort in helping to make one soldier's life a little easier: an American flag that was flown in Iraq, in Al-faw, at Saddam's palace and the present headquarters of General Petraeus, where Heather had served.
Let me tell you, it was a lesson in humility to be thanked by the very people who we cannot thank enough. All I could think to say was to tell Col. Stone he had gotten it backwards: we should be thanking them! While we were enjoying the benefits of a blessed life, they were risking their lives in a foreign,hostile world far from home and family. The event was a wonderful, moving moment. Not a dry eye in the house!
We will cherish this flag as a memory of how giving our military can be. Thank you so much Heather, for a wonderful moment, a wonderful memory, and for our wonderful life here in America.