Tear of Pride
November 3rd, 2006 . by CaryI experienced a new manifestation of a feeling I have had for a while.
I was in a large warehouse store the other day (red letters, rhymes with “bostco”) and I was waiting to check out. A gentleman walked by, a little older than I am, a little shorter than I am, dark complexion, with a splash of gray at his temples. He was walking with a purpose (he was a vet, I’ll tell you that right now. most vets walk with a purpose, unless they are on the golf course, but that’s another story…) and it wasn’t his coloring or his facial features that I noticed first – it was his ballcap. It was black, and along the side of the bill was stitched, in very small letters, “RANGER.”
“Ah,” I thought to myself. “A Ranger. Tough birds, those Rangers.”
Then I saw the tatto on his right upper arm.
2nd Btn Viet Nam 1966 1969
A rare bird, indeed.
Under his tatoo, the parachute insignia. Airborne Ranger.
Very, very rare bird.
I caught myself tearing up. I actually had a Tear of Pride in my eye – from seeing this complete stranger walk by with the earmarks of a distinguished and challenging service record.
TMBWitW looked at me, glanced where I was looking, and asked “Ranger? Isn’t that one of the elite?”
“Yup.”
“Why are you crying?”
“I’m not crying. I’ve got a Tear of Pride in my eye. Marines can have a single Tear of Pride; it’s in the code.”
“I think I need to see a written version of this code.”
“They don’t write it on paper, they write it on your heart. That way you can’t lose it.”
Just then Ranger walked back by, behind us, and commented on my red shirt. I thanked him for his service, and said “Welcome Home.”
He nodded back, and as he turned away I could see he had his Tear of Pride in his eye.
That’s an awesome story cary.
That was very cool of you.
A pride you guys wear with valour!
I thought this was interesting; in the yahoo search bar I punched in TMBWitW
And your site came up 6th in the search. Not bad.
(this is the link)
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=TMBWitW&ei=UTF-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&fr=moz2
FTGF!
Awww dang this put a tear in my eyes
Blogmad surfin…
Great posting Cary! Love the conversation with TMBWitW to really personalize it.
I ran the acronym through Google and you came up 6th and 8th and 17th…
Now all we need to do is get the rest of the world to type it in…
Told this story to a friend and guess what. He got a Tear of Pride too.
It must be contagious.
I think it is connected with National Pride.
Thanks, guys. I saw all these comments and had to re-read the entry – and, of course, got another ToP in the process.
I hate it when I read stuff like this…..
Aww, heck, I guess we are allowed the occasional moment, lump in the throat, and….yeah, a tear of pride.
Ahhh, the unwritten code. The list of things that Marines simply do not do, or never fail to do. Too bad everyone doesn’t have the same list of unwritten rules and standards.
Powerful post brother.
John, you may not like reading it, but it’s kind of like a car wreck, isn’t it? You end up finishing it, even when you know it’s going to affect you…
Thanks, bro. Semper Fi!
wow Cary…nice nice story there dude!..ya makin us all teary now..sheesh..!..Semper Fi!
Thank you, WHT. It wasn’t meant to be a tear jerker, but it looks like it has that affect on most visitors.
yep, you got me too. That was a great story. I really liked the part about…
“They don’t write it on paper, they write it on your heart. That way you can’t lose it.”
– just awesome, Cary. sniff, sniff.
Thanks, Sue.
Every time I think about that event, I get a ToP going – and living where I do, there are an awful lot of older Vets to see and thank every where I go.
What a wonderful post. Tear of Pride here!
Thank, Mary!
Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did.