Melvin Brown – 9/5/09

Dear BCC,
 
I’m sitting here at 8pm on Saturday, September 5th trying to finds the words to express my gratitude for all of y’all today.  Because of you, my father, Melvin Brown, was able to stand up today & proudly accept the Welcome home he deserved 40 years ago.  He was able to finally realize that there are Americans that are grateful for the job he was asked to do for his country.  When he saw those fire trucks, police cars & those bikes for the 1st time, he was worried that y’all were at the wrong place.  When the wind blew up Tracy’s papers & he saw his name on it, realized you all were there for him…words can’t describe my Daddy’s face!!!  And when he turned around & saw just how many of you there was he was in total shock!  Then he looked up & saw the plane flying over tipping his wings at HIM, he was just speechless.  All the gifts, all the kind words of gratitude were nothing compared to the simple words that were repeated over & over today…WELCOME HOME!  I can’t even begin to understand how you pulled it together.  I know it took many hours.  There will be a special place for you in Heaven for all that you do.  The sacrifice you do to be there for our men & women in service to our country is amazing.  I know Dad was the 1st of many more Vietnam Veteran Welcome Homes you will do.  And I am honored that you let him be the 1st!  Since I was 10 years old & realized that someone actually spit on my Daddy, my Hero, when he landed in Houston all those years ago, I have always wanted to take that away from him!  I feel like we did that today!  And for his family & best friends to be there to help was just the icing on the cake.  And for us to have the opportunity to pay our respects & thank-you’s to the other Vietnam Hero’s that were there was even better!!  I hope we were able to capture the whole thing on the video camera so we can send it to the web site to let others see the joy y’all bring to our American Hero’s.  He went on with his life still loving the country that let him down, still believing there was good in America somewhere.  Y’all showed him that it was in his own backyard today.  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for helping me bring my Daddy home today!!  As I say to the Soldiers, JOB WELL DONE!!!
Sincerely,
Angela Brown West