"One hundred years from now it won't matter what kind of car I drove,
what
kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank, or the kind
of
clothes I wore. BUT the world may be a better place because I was
important
in the life of a child."
This is little-known story from the Pentagon on 09/11/2001:
During a visit with a fellow chaplain, who happened to be assigned to
the
Pentagon, I had a chance to hear a first-hand account of an
incident that
happened right after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. The chaplain
told me
what happened at a daycare center near where the impact occurred.
This
daycare had many children, including infants who were in heavy
cribs. The
daycare supervisor, looking at all the
children they needed to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could
do. There
were many children, mostly toddlers, as well as the infants that would
need to
be taken out with the cribs.
There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and
strollers. Just
then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they
needed.
After hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back
out into
the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, 'well, there we
are-on our
own.'
About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other Marines in
tow. Each
of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up
toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the
children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac
and the Pentagon. Once they got about 3/4 of a mile outside the
building, the
Marines stopped in the park, and then did a fabulous thing - they
formed a circle with the cribs, which were quite sturdy and heavy, like
the
covered wagons in the Old West. Inside this circle of cribs, they put
the
toddlers, to keep them from wandering off. Outside this circle
were the
40 Marines, forming a perimeter around the children and waiting for
instructions. There they remained until the parents could be notified
and come
get their children.
The chaplain then said, "I don't think any of us saw nor heard of this
on
any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible story of our
men
there. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. The thought of those Marines
and
what they did and how fast they reacted; could we expect any less
from them? It was one of the most touching stories from the
Pentagon.
Remember Ronald Reagan's great compliment: "Most of us wonder if our
lives
made any difference. Marines don't have that problem."
God Bless the USA
, our troops, and you.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says "if my people, who are called by my name, will
humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways,
then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal
their
land."