Last Saturday the Barnesville Rotary held a tribute for WWII veterans last Saturday. Rotary President elect, Mark Stone invited me to MC the affair. I got this email yesterday from one of those heroes. I’d like to share it with you as today’s Small Town Soap Box It's great that patriotism is flourishing now because it is never more needed than at this time. While we are living in what I believe to be the best 100 years in our history of our Great Country .... we are on a slippery slide to ? ... I don't know. Saturday's "Tribute to our WWII Veterans" was one of the best, most emotional and sincere I have attended. A father and his young daughters approached me at the conclusion of the program. With the look that only a beautiful young girl can melt your heart with, she "Thanked me for my service." I lost it. I openly wept for the first time in fifty years. The grieving and tears with the passing of my wife of fifty-two years were plentiful, but in private. The only reason I could be her "hero" would be because I've lived so long. If you're saluting World War II Veterans, you're dealing with a bunch of old codgers. I volunteered for service, did what I was told to do, went where I was instructed to go and came home when they said we were done. If you add all that up, you have an old veteran, if you organize a program to honor him, you've got a "hero" .... for longivity. Moby, as you well know - the hills of East Tennessee were not known as military hot beds. So, in 1943 when the U. S. Army Air Force announced in the paper that local pin-head Leland Kindred had completed Pilot Training and been awarded a Commission and his silver Pilots Wings, the populace wanted to join France in their act of surrender I am attaching a picture of our beloved B-24 .... sort of proof that I am telling the truth!!!! Again, I'm so glad to have finally met you and hope that we met again and have time for some "hill billy" talk. Leland (H. L. Kindred 1st Lt US Air Corps discharged 1946)