Looking Back: My Husband's Best Veteran's Day

This post, My Husband's Best Veteran's Day, was originally written November 13, 2007. Just this year, the I-280 bridge, which connects Iowa & Illinois, was renamed after this hometown hero.

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Some family friends of ours who are involved in a local Vietnam Veterans chapter organized a "Welcome Home" party to celebrate veterans and thank them. This was the 2nd annual, and there is a great band that plays 50's & 60's songs, the Mexican American Vets Association makes amazing tacos, and it's a very fun event.

This past weekend, we had a wedding to go to first, and Jake wasn't sure we'd have time to go to the Welcome Home party because it was his early night in to work. I told him we should still go - he should change his clothes into his work clothes & we'd just take two cars. So we headed off.

This year they honored a local man who is a medal of honor recipient, Sgt. John Baker (then Pfc.). What he did was nothing short of amazing. He is a TRUE American hero. There are only a few more than 100 of these men living. Many of the recipients of the Medal of Honor are awarded posthumously.

My heart leaped out of my chest when I got to watch my husband shake hands with this man. I know how proud he was to have even met & shaken hands with him. Jake was smiling ear to ear and when we stepped away he was shaking with excitement and said he had goosebumps. A few minutes later, one of our family friends took us back over to Sgt. Baker. I watched as Jake interacted with him....and then....Sgt. Baker reached into his pocket & shook Jake's hand, and as he did so, he passed Jake one of his Medal of Honor "coins."

For those of you not in the military, here is some history. It's part of a "game" where there is always a challenge to "trump" each other's coins...coins are awarded for different reasons, but as I understand, a Medal of Honor coin "trumps" ALL. It's a huge honor to receive one of these coins, and I am not sure of this, but I believe that people like Sgt. Baker has a limited number of these coins to hand out over his lifetime. After Jake was given this coin, he was even MORE thrilled. He had to turn away because he had tears in his eyes!

What a memorable Veterans Day experience for Jake! I think I got to experience him having one of the best moments of his life!

~Emily