Proud + Loud
Austin, TX | ©️ 2025 Alicia Kae Miller
When the conversation of renaming Veteran's Day became a recent controversy, I was instantly mind-transported to a pay phone inside the Tampa International Airport in 1991.
As a relatively new flight attendant for Continental Airlines, now United, I was excited to share with a loved one that I was about to ferry (a non-revenue flight without passengers) a Boeing 747 to London's Heathrow to return troops stationed overseas during the Persian Gulf War.
While my memory of the boarding process is lost, once we were well into our journey pointed west across the Atlantic Ocean, I distinctly recall feeling overwhelmed with the honor and privilege of this once-in-a-lifetime experience, which included multiple bar cart services and a range of conversations with Marines who raised their right hand and pledged in their Oath of Enlistment to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to it.
When we descended into JFK eight hours later, I nearly jumped out of my jump seat to the roar of whooping and hollering from a chorus of 416 true Patriots as our "Queen of the Skies" touched down on treasured American soil.
I will never forget that fated flight or those brave veterans and the ones that we lost who helped a 35-nation coalition liberate Kuwait.
As I pen this, tears stream down my face (similar to three-plus decades ago) at the memory of raw elation, an acute awareness of their physical exhaustion, and yet-to-be-seen emotional turmoil that would soon follow these national heroes who deserve only the best from We the People, then and now.
Until we meet again, recall what you project, you reflect. ❤️
Yours in Solidarity, -akm
May 2025