Sorry for the Inconvenience

 The Armed Forces Appreciation Day at the rodeo was a great success. We had 3,000+ troops on the ground representing all branches of the military. Fortunately, Kenny brought the Air Force golf cart, which he was kind enough to turn over to me for the day. Of the many special moments of the day, one really stuck with me. I was outside the pavilion with the cart when a committeeman asked if I had time to give someone a ride. I was a little pressed for time but said sure. I looked to the left and saw an Army soldier on crutches, his wife, and their son of maybe 5 sporting a big black hat. They hopped on the cart and the first words were thank you for the ride. They wanted to go to the Kid’s Country area so off we went. As we rounded the corner, his phone rang. It was a friend trying to meet up with him, and off we went in another direction.

He tried to explain where his friend was but was getting confused between the center and the arena at the facility. There is quite a big difference as they are on opposite sides of the property. We ended up at a couple of wrong places. The battery started going down on the cart, and the soldier’s wife said, “maybe we should get out here so he can take the cart back…sir, we are sorry for the inconvenience.” I asked them to hang on and I would get them there. About two minutes later, we located their friend. When they got off the cart, the soldier shook my hand and said, “thank you for going out of your way to help us.” I responded, “not out of the way at all…happy I could help and thank you for what you do.”

As I headed back to put the cart on the charging and wondering if I would make it, I kept thinking about this young man’s concern about being an inconvenience to me. I saw the same type of attitude with my Special Tactics friends when they had an issue at the hotel with the reservations. Rather than be an inconvenience to me, the team was going to get another room and cover the cost themselves. I told them “absolutely not” and resolved the problem.

Appreciation and courtesy are two common characteristics I consistently see in our soldiers. There is no sense of entitlement.

Thank you to everyone in our armed forces and a special thank you to my San Antonio crew for making the event quite memorable.