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We Will Persist

As a combat veteran, I wanted to be on the green to show that we who offered our lives for what American should mean are with [the March for Our Lives participants]. Marches like Saturday’s create a wonderful atmosphere of openness and sharing.

I was wearing the same jacket, without shoulder rank brass, I’d worn as a VIP pilot in the Air Force many years ago. Because my name-tag carried pilot wings, several people thanked me for my service. Best of all, a woman stopped to ask if I was indeed an Air Force pilot, and went on to say her husband had been an air traffic controller. I smiled and said he was the reason I still have an equal number of takeoffs and landings. She said he’d died, but was still in her heart. Because of my service, she imbued me with all the virtues of her beloved husband, which was undeserved, but very touching.

Many such unique conversations bind all the marchers in special and wonderful ways. We will persist and create the change that the country needs.

Bill St. Paul

Guilford