DFW Airport Bids Farewell To Military R&R Flights
DFW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (CBSDFW.COM) - It was a scene repeated hundreds of times over eight years at DFW Airport. Hundreds of camouflage-covered soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen sat around tables, reclined in couches or hunched over sitting on the floor and waited to ship out of DFW Airport as the returned from leave.
Volunteers worked through the crowd offering food and water, handshakes and hugs. They were waiting for an R&R flight back to Afghanistan or the Iraqi Theater. But this was not an ordinary R&R flight. It was DFW's last one.
"Today is a bittersweet day," said Jim Crites, the Executive Vice President of DFW Airport Operations, as he milled around the troops. "Today marks the culmination of heartfelt devotion by the citizens of north texas to share a little Texas-sized love, if you will, with all of our troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan."
Many of the troops enjoy fajitas provided to them as they wait to complete paperwork, check their bags and leave the country. It is the last taste of home for troops deploying overseas.
The USO has contests and offers prizes as a last boost of cheer for men and women with destinations far, far from their loved ones.
"It feels really good knowing that it's people back home going out of their way to help us out and keep our morale up," said U.S. Army SPC Kyle Woods, from Michigan.
Nearly half a million troops have passed through DFW on the R&R flights. The military scaling down overseas mean this is the last flight. The operations in the terminal will be shut down. The volunteers who've devoted years to embracing the troops can say, "Mission Accomplished."
Stephen Largent has been coming here almost half his life. He's 11 and he's been visiting R&R flights for five years.
"We've probably been out at the airport to see the troops about 300 times," Largent said.
It started when his church group visited. And Largent just kept coming back.
Largent wears a vest with military patches of all shapes and sizes covering every inch.
"That's the Air Force and there's a military police right here," Largent said, pointing to his patches.
The patches were given to him by appreciative men and women heading into harm's way.
"It means a lot to them," Largent said of his visits. "And to be a part of something great makes me feel good."
Every flight is given a special 'shower of appreciation' -- a rainbow of water blasted high in the air over the departing flight. But this is the last flight. And this farewell is perhaps the hardest of them all.
"We're going to miss them," Crites said. "We're glad that the troops' draw down is happening and things of that nature. But they really take a big piece of us when they go."
All R&R flights will now be routed through Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
