My babe, Terry Bowden

So I 'm sitting here responding to an email from a client when my phone rings. I saw it was my wife's number on caller ID, so I clicked the button on my headset and said, 'Hey, Babe.' My wife is from California, and insisted on 'babe' being our preferred term of endearment when we were dating. I really didn't want to, but she's gorgeous , so I've made it work. After uttering 'Hey, Babe', this man's voice answers back, 'Uh, I'm calling for Brian Lord. This is Terry Bowden.' I looked down in shock to see that my wife's line was still blinking as 'ringing', and that Terry must have called in just as I was clicking my headset. I gave a little laugh, explained the situation, and got a good laugh in return. Away from the phone I hear, 'A guy just called me 'babe'. Then back to me, 'I'm sitting here with my wife, I just had to tell her that.' I'm sure all those Alabama fans out there are saying I deserve to feel silly, what with working with a former Auburn Tiger head coach turned college football analyst and all. Luckily he's a nice guy, and was nice enough to get back with me on some event questions while his assistant was out sick. My wife got a good laugh when I told her, too.

Carlson's Raider and the Cheesecake Factory

Last Saturday, my wife and I were able to get one of her sisters to babysit our two girls so we could go out on a date. It wasn’t at night and there was no movie to see, but any alone time is great to have. We’d finished eating at the Cheesecake Factory, and as we were walking out, we passed a table with a very elderly gentleman in a wheelchair and his wife. I saw that he had a red US Marines hat on. This little voice inside me told me told me I needed to go and say hello to him and thank him for what he did for us. But I didn’t.

We walked out into the mall, and my wife headed out to her usual spot checking out home décor and I went to my usual spot which is the history section of the nearest bookstore. I couldn’t really enjoy myself, because I knew I should have talked to him. We met back up, went to a window shop at a couple more stores, and then walked out to the parking lot. I started to pull out, but parked back in.

“Do you remember that guy with the Marines hat in there?” I asked my wife. “I should have talked to him. I bet he’s a World War II vet. I going back to see if he’s still eating.” My wife said she thought I should, too. She’s cool like that.

Luckily we were parked just outside the restaurant, and he and his wife were still eating. I came up beside him and said, “Hello, sir, I noticed your hat, and I wanted to thank you for what you did for our country.”

“Oh,” he said with scratchy voice, “You’re welcome.”

I wasn’t sure what to say next, so I asked, “So where did you serve?”

“I fought in the Pacific against the Japanese,” he replied.

“Which island?” I asked.

“A lot of them,” he replied with his scratchy voice.

“All over the place,” his wife chimed in, sweeping her arm in a big circle to emphasize the point.

“I was part of Colonel Carlson’s Raiders,” he said with pride.

“Wow!” I replied. I had no idea who Colonel Carlson was, or what his Raiders did, but I wasn’t about to let him know. Luckily he continued.

“We were a suicide squad. We were worst than terrorists. We’d go into an island, to clear the way for the Marines. Then they’d clear the way for the Navy. Then they’d clear the way for the Army.” He paused. “127 of us left the base, but only 38 came back.”

I didn’t know quite what to say, so I stuck out my hand and said, “Thank you again sir for what you did for us.”

He grasped my hand with his own thin hand, but still he still gave a firm shake and a smile. “You’re welcome.”

I went back to the car and relayed the story to my wife. Almost at tears, she said, “I can’t believe only 38 came back. I don’t know how they could do that.”

And to me, its amazing. We drove off from in our nice car, from an upscale mall and a restaurant, knowing that we didn’t have to think about living or dying or fighting to be free that day. We could because men and women gave their lives in 1776, 1942, or even July 3, 2008, to protect our freedom.

Post script: As soon as I got home, I looked up Col. Carlson’s Raiders. Sure enough, they did exactly what he said they did. Col. Carlson even was the guy responsible for bringing the Chinese phrase for ‘work together’, gung ho, into the American vernacular. I’m hoping to find the movie ‘Gung Ho!’, starring Robert Mitchum, which was inspired by Col. Carlson and his Raiders. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evans_F._Carlson)