I've been around, especially since I spent 12 years in the Navy but I've never been so moved as I was last spring. My wife hasn't traveled much but I have seen a lot of places. Last spring, April 2006, I decided to take her to Washington, DC. The WWII Memorial was done, the Korean Memorial was done and a lot of other things that I wanted to see were finally finished or remodeled. So we went to DC for a week and she had a blast.
We were walking around the big pond between the Lincoln Memorial the new WWII Memorial. I was wearing one of my ships ballcaps and this older gentleman and his wife came up to me and ask what kind of ship I had on my ballcap. It was an AGP, basically a converted LST for patrol gun boats or PG's. Kind of a modern PT boat. I was stationed on it in Italy in the 70's. So we chatted about it for a few minutes then he just came out and said... "I just want to thank you for the time you spent in service to our country." That just about floored me. I was 50 years old and no one had ever just said thanks. I just got all choked up. It made me think of the guys that came back from Vietnam and Korea.
Now this stupid woman is back in the news... it's disgusting!