In March 2009, while I was an analyst with RAND, I attended a wargame at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. After one day's session was complete, a bunch of us involved with the CENTCOM scenario met for dinner (and several pitchers) at the Gingerbread Man, a brewpub in "downtown" Carlisle popular with the Dickinson College crowd.
The group I was with was mostly active duty military with the appropriate haircuts, as well as a contractor or two who were recently retired veterans, myself, and a retired General. After about 2+ hours at three tables, when it was time to settle our bill the waitress asked if we were veterans. Although it seemed like a sort of random question, we said "yes, almost all of us are, but we aren't part of any sort of organization or group."
She disappeared without giving us the check, and after about 15 minutes we were starting to get impatient. She finally came back and told us that the bill was already taken care of, that somebody in the bar had asked to pay for us. (Again, we were about 16 guys over three tables). We asked if we could take pay their bill in exchange, or at least buy them a round of drinks. We had all ordered dinner and multiple rounds, so our bill had to be somewhere close to $400 dollars. But the waitress said that our benefactor had insisted on remaining anonymous.
The group I was with was mostly active duty military with the appropriate haircuts, as well as a contractor or two who were recently retired veterans, myself, and a retired General. After about 2+ hours at three tables, when it was time to settle our bill the waitress asked if we were veterans. Although it seemed like a sort of random question, we said "yes, almost all of us are, but we aren't part of any sort of organization or group."
She disappeared without giving us the check, and after about 15 minutes we were starting to get impatient. She finally came back and told us that the bill was already taken care of, that somebody in the bar had asked to pay for us. (Again, we were about 16 guys over three tables). We asked if we could take pay their bill in exchange, or at least buy them a round of drinks. We had all ordered dinner and multiple rounds, so our bill had to be somewhere close to $400 dollars. But the waitress said that our benefactor had insisted on remaining anonymous.
For about another 10-15 minutes we debated how we should repay this generous stranger. Finally, our "group leader" (the head of the CENTCOM working group) stood up on a chair. Already 6'4", his head nearly hit the ceiling as he announced: "Excuse me, excuse me, can I have everybody in the bar's attention? I'm a U.S. Army Colonel, and I'm having dinner tonight with a group of veterans. Somebody offered to pay for our dinner tonight, but insisted on remaining anonymous. We'd just like everybody to hear us say 'THANK YOU.'"
He stepped down, and the bar full of patrons, until then engrossed with the Villanova-Pitt "Elite Eight" NCAA tournament game on TV, erupted into cheers. A spontaneous chant of "U-S-A, U-S-A" broke out. (We did have one British officer with us. But he had served in Basra, and took everything in the appropriate spirit).
As we got up to leave a half hour later, the bar broke out into cheers once again.
This gesture was as much an appreciation for EVERYBODY who has served as for anyone in the bar's.
Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment