Veteran's Day

I went to the Chiefs' game yesterday afternoon. They did a great job of honoring the veterans. Before the game, the Chiefs' GM walked to the center of the field with an older man. His name was George and he was dressed in full military uniform. He fought in WWII as a pilot and was shot down over Europe by the Germans. He survived a year in a German prisoner camp and was liberated by Patton and his forces in 1945. As his achievements were listed by the stadium announcer, the roar of the crowd grew until the list was complete. At that point, a HUGE roar came as a standing ovation of at least one minute was given to George. You could see the tears coming from his eyes as he kept saying 'Thank you'.

Following that, the national anthem was sung by a Marine who had a wonderful bass voice. He sang the national anthem slow and steady without any fancy ad-libs, just like it was meant to be sung. As the anthem neared completion, the west end of the stadium (the opposite end from where our seats were located) began to roar in excitement. We looked up to the sky as that meant only one thing......a fly-by. Over the stadium roared a B-2 Stealth Bomber. We're very lucky in the midwest as many aircraft are based in this region, so we get to see a lot of fly-overs. This was the 3rd time I've seen a B-2 bomber fly over a stadium. It's always impressive as you can't hear it coming until it's right over you. It's impressive to watch and I'm surely glad that plane is on my side and not someone else's side.

At halftime, they played some tribute music and rolled a set of images showing some soldiers from the KC metro area who had lost their life in the line of duty in Iraq. Everyone stood and watched for several minutes in silence as the list rolled by. It was tough to see the number of people listed, but as previous war veterans would tell you, war isn't pretty. You just hope for as few casulties as possible.