The Missed Shot

It was sunny and hot Sunday morning as my wife Gail and I put our American Flags in the car and headed for Merle Hay Road. There was a deployment ceremony at Camp Dodge this morning,…

Cindy had posted on Facebook that the buses carrying the troops would be headed down Merle Hay Road at about 11:30.

We parked at the car dealership and tried to get other people to come and join us…“Come join us and SEND’EM OFF PROUDLY” was the status update….

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We waited and waited til about noon, and thought we must’ve missed them. Gail said, “Let’s get a picture of us waiting”.

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We stood in the sun along Merle Hay Road holding our flags. Just the two of us. We got some strange looks as we stood on the sidewalk. Hot, and waiting.

Gail made note that here we were in shorts and t-shirts and we were uncomfortable in the heat.
Yet the soldiers we were waiting for were about to spend a year in the heat. And about 30 degrees hotter….wearing a helmet and 80 pounds of gear.

We figured we could wait for as long as it took....


Then we heard the sirens.

First it was the Sherriff’s cruisers…lights flashing and sirens blaring. In my excitement of finally seeing what we had been waiting for, I snap the first picture of the procession on my iPhone.

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Then another.

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The Patriot Guard was next. The loud motorcycles ridden by scary lookin’ dudes- all who had served this country proudly.

They also stood solemnly at the church last year while my Father-In-Law, John Cruse, was laid to rest. He was a WWII veteran.

The Patriot Guard attends countless funerals for any veteran’s family who requests them. Today they were riding escort..

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Here come the buses.

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There were only two.


I thought there would be more buses.

But quickly, the times I had ridden in a motor coach came back to me, and I was reminded that they can hold anywhere from 45 to 65 people depending on the size.

These were big ones… and they were holding 94.

It happened too fast. The lights, the sirens, the motorcycles….then the buses. The soldiers all leaned over to the right side of their bus. Waving. Smiling. Heading into the great unknown.

Gail and I held our flags high above our heads and waved to the brothers, sisters, husbands, wives and Moms & Dads. They waved, they smiled.....

and they were gone.

I don’t know that I had ever been so proud to be an American in my whole life.

I stood there for a moment as the wail of the sirens drifted further and further away. My eyes began to fill with tears. I looked at Gail and she was crying too. The emotion of those brief few seconds will last me and my wife for the rest of our lives.

It was then that I realized, that in my excitement,...

I had forgotten to take a picture.


Not one.

And I didn’t even care.

The memory of seeing those buses escorted down Merle Hay Road will forever be burned into my memory.

I’m so glad we were there.

When I reached down to turn the camera off on my iPhone, I accidentally touched the screen and took one last picture that kind of sums up the whole morning.

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God bless the troops. God bless their families.



God Bless America,



Love to you all,



Eddie & Gail