My Wal-Mart greeter is a World War II hero

I know that the Fourth of July is not the same as Memorial Day.  On Memorial Day every year Mommy Mojo and I watch the PBS special that has music and features some of the stories from our soldiers.  Mommy Mojo is quite patriotic and over the years it’s rubbed off on me.

“Thank you for your service”, she always says when she meets somebody in the military.  I say it now too, except she looks much cuter when she says it.  She tilts her head to the side and raises her shoulders a bit, it’s a genuine act of thanks that pales next to the way I say it.

In the background of all this, Toddler Mojo and I were at Wal-Mart the other day.  We saw our usual greeter come out and he said, “Guess where I was last week?”  He’s an older man and I gamely said, ‘you went on a cruise?’

“No I went to Paris.”

‘Paris, that’s a beautiful city, why did you go there?’

“I met some of my old war buddies in Paris to remember the 67 anniversary of Normandy.”

He then went on to say that the beach was pretty and not at all like he remembered.  He said it with a grin; that told me that he remembered lots about what happened.

As Toddler Mojo and I continued our shopping we couldn’t help think about our Wal-Mart greeter.  He’s a gentle man, who always gives us a high five when he sees us, has a big grin and an enthusiastic personality.  For a moment I wanted to see and experience what he saw when he stormed the beaches of Normandy.

When we were leaving the store I told him that he should share his story and would he mind if I interviewed him?  He politely said that he’s told his story countless times to local schools and that it just wasn’t in him to tell it again.   Out Wal-Mart greeter did say that he’d share some of his photos from his recent trip.

Later that week I was talking with a business acquaintance and they mentioned that they had been in the first Gulf War.  He then told me the story of how he was shot down and presumed dead.  His family had even been sent a letter of condolence delivered by two military men in a government vehicle.

‘How did you survive when you were shot down’, I asked.   He then proceeded to tell how he’d bury himself in sand the daytime and travel at night.  One time he was buried in the sand and an Iraqi soldier stepped on him.  The Iraqi soldier was aware that he stepped on something and it was kill or be killed.

When you meet our military heroes be careful when you ask for stories.  Sometimes like my Wal-Mart greeter they’ll just slyly smile and say that they’ve already told them.  If they tell you a story it may be something you’re not ready to hear.  The stories that I heard didn’t change my impression of him, if anything in made me appreciate him more because I didn’t know that he had served in the military.

Specific to my Wal-Mart greeter and men of their demographic I’ve always been kind and considerate to them.  However, lately I find myself much more appreciative of what they’ve done, even if they don’t want to talk about it.