by William Jazwinski was driving down the road one morning when he saw the ever-so-polarizing red, white and blue lights reflecting from his rearview mirror.
As the officer approached his window, William greeted him, then asked if he had been speeding.
“Good morning,” the officer replied. “No, not speeding. Just wanted to stop ya and say thank you for your service.” William recalled a bumper sticker on the back of his car, which had informed the cop that he’d served in the military.
“You’re welcome sir,” William responded. “My pleasure.”
The officer struck up a conversation with the former Heavy Wheeled Vehicle Operator, asking him where he’d served.
“I went to Iraq,” William said. “Did a 15 monther out of Fort Benning.”
That’s when the officer got personal. He told William that his son had served in Iraq. He never made it home.
William’s heart ached for the officer as he offered his condolences.
Upon noticing a folded flag on William’s dashboard—identical to the one the military gave him after his son passed away—the cop made an odd request to the former Army soldier.
“Do you mind stepping out and receiving a hug?” the cop asked. “You remind me of my son. I pulled you over. I thought you were him. I still don’t believe it most days he’s gone.”
William says with tears in both of their eyes, he got out of his truck and “hugged that man.”
The embrace wasn’t like two strangers simply greeting each other.
“I’m talking about for a minute or two crying,” wrote William. “Down to our knees crying.”
It was the hug that William, who had just finished a PTSD program, desperately and unknowingly needed.
William closes his post with a message “to all of the family and friends of soldiers, fighting or done fighting, God bless you.”
Land of the free because of the brave. May we all be reminded today of the great sacrifices that are made daily for our freedom.
