I woke up this morning around 5:40 unable to sleep—I didn’t want to miss greeting fifty-five Reservists returning from Afghanistan.  I arrived at the Armory in Henrietta (42 Patriot Way) around 9:15 a.m.  The air was weighted with anticipation.  Young children were squirming as their exhausted mothers tried to soothe them with tiny flags and hushed assurances that “Daddy will be home soon.”  Elderly veterans were walking around impatiently in their uniforms, some with patriotic bowties, others with signs held in hands that have felt war before.

The hangar was precisely proportioned, orderly and vacuous, making all those inside seem tiny and insignificant, like Lilliputians in a Swift story, smaller than the machinations that make the place tick.  An incongruous reverie followed me into the cold, cement-floored room in the form of brightly colored helium balloons with giant smiley faces painted on the front, as if to say “War is over, at least today.” 

Well wishers had adorned their bodies and the walls with flags.  Patriotic music was beginning to seep in, although slightly drowned out by babbling children and the occasional plane landing in the distance.  Suddenly, sirens sounded and fire trucks lined the pavement, spewing geysers into the sky.  Then around  the corner came three buses driving under the water and an American flag that had been hoisted up on a tall fire truck ladder.  The crowd began screaming, arms thrusting red, white and blue into the air.  Our soldiers were home…safely.

As I was watching it all, snapping photos and feeling like it was a movie instead of real life, it occurred to me that this scene was America all at once: young, old, black, white, enlisted, civilian, conservative, liberal, punk, prude, spontaneous, methodical, hippie, straight-laced, rich, poor, naive, wise, happy, sad, energetic and tired.  It was all there—America in cross-section.

War has affected us all and for about an hour on this gray Saturday morning, we all came together for the same thing.  We didn’t care about our differences.  We just cared about seeing our soldiers come home safely.  And one more thing: we all wanted this war to be over.