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Just about the longest trip you can make and still stay within the borders of the USA’s “lower 48” is what I did recently, flying from Sarasota to Seattle. I’d normally make this trip to visit my son’s family at Ft. Lewis-McChord in the sunnier months, but babysitting necessities prevailed.

I’m always in total awe crossing this huge country filled with every imaginable kind of topography, seen from 30,000 feet. From one coast to the other, over green hills, then drab brown flatlands carving the countryside into a patchwork quilt of winter fields that gradually morph into snowcapped Rocky Mountains and finally the Cascade Mountains. The huge majesty of Mt. Ranier then royally announces our arrival at the chilly coastal waters of the Pacific North West.

“Water, water everywhere…” and just how important it is to the history and growth of this land! To watch the wide, ever-reaching rivers passing beneath our wings, snaking from one city to another, reminded me how much our early transportation was dependent on these bodies of water. 

Ferries are an assumed way of life out here in Washington, there are so many islands dotting the Sound. Fort Lewis, on which construction began on July 5, 1917 as “Camp Lewis,” must have used the waterways for receiving shipments of building materials. Within two months of ground-breaking, there were 1,700 structures built on this huge property (70,000 acres) and the first soldiers to train here, shipped out in September, 1917 as the “91^st Wild West Division”.  These brave “Doughboys” as they were called in the fields of France, eventually turned the tide to end “The Great War”.

All indications, from the soldiers who attended the two “Commander’s Receptions” at my Lt. Colonel’s temporary, historic home here last weekend, are that we are in very good hands, militarily. Most of the men and women in uniform here have already been to Iraq and/or Afghanistan, and several will be on their way soon. Please thank the next soldier that you meet for keeping our freedom secure. They deserve much more than our gratitude!