Patterico's Pontifications

3/29/2010

Fort Hood is Known for … Hugs?

Filed under: War — DRJ @ 12:11 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Central Texas’ Fort Hood is special in several ways:

“Like the State of Texas, Fort Hood is big and boasts of being the largest active duty armored post in the United States Armed Services. Fort Hood is nicknamed The Great Place because of the quality of life the post and area offer Soldiers and their families. These qualities are important, especially with home-basing initiatives, frequent deployments and family stability and support.

Soldiers assigned to Fort Hood can expect to have one of the highest quality of life standards in the Army. New housing, quality medical care, thriving communities, recreation and schools combine to ensure that Fort Hood is The Great Place.”

There’s something else that’s special about Fort Hood. It has its own Hug Lady:

“Elizabeth Laird is the official Fort Hood Hug Lady.

The Fort Hood airport is her home away from home. It doesn’t matter whether a plane filled with soldiers is taking off or coming home. It doesn’t matter whether the plane leaves at 3:30 a.m. or arrives at 3:30 p.m.

The Hug Lady is here.

She wraps her arms around deploying soldiers before they board a plane and around returning soldiers just after they deplane. She is a one-woman welcome wagon and one-person goodbye party.”

Fort Hood estimates Laird has hugged at least 500,000 soldiers in almost seven years and apparently she hasn’t missed a flight. That’s nearly 7 years of commitment by Mrs. Laird, packed into a lifetime that hasn’t been that easy.

Well done, Mrs. Laird, as well as the Soldiers you hug.

— DRJ

9 Responses to “Fort Hood is Known for … Hugs?”

  1. What a wonderful woman. God bless Mrs. Laird.

    JVW (fd30ab)

  2. Ain’t nothin wrong with that.

    papertiger (bd6c91)

  3. Mrs Laird is seriously whacko. The poor woman should be given treatment to wean her off this compulsion so she can live a normal life.

    liamascorcaigh (4880f3)

  4. […] } I’m stealing DRJ’s post and posting it here. Central Texas’ Fort Hood is special in several ways: “Like the State of […]

    Fort Hood Is Known For … Hugs? « Truth Before Dishonor (cbb264)

  5. DRJ, I cried when I read this post. Thank you.

    And liamascorcaigh, may all your teeth fall out except one, and in that one you should get a tooth ache.

    John Hitchcock (352725)

  6. (OT website box no longer works. Apparently, neither do carriage returns.)

    John Hitchcock (352725)

  7. #5 & 6 John Hitchcock: And a cavity, not just a toothache.

    (I presume the changes in the comment form are part of the upgrades to speed things up~in the meantime, the comment form doesn’t remember “Website” between entries, and carriage returns work, but they aren’t rendered as paragraph breaks anymore. Try <p> to begin a paragraph and get the break you want.)

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  8. i spent two weeks one summer at Ft Hood (which was more than enough) and “Great” was not an adjective i would have put in front of “place” to describe it or the weather, or the bugs, or the…..well, you get the picture.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  9. Redc1c4, I was in Killeen for two weeks myself, although they were not consecutive. I did note the power lines and trees were absolutely full of birds and the morning sidewalks were absolutely full of nature’s bird-food. But the weather was very much desirous and the amenities couldn’t be beaten (unless you’re a limousine liberal or a country club republican).

    Of course, familiarity breeds contempt, so my daughter, being familiar with the area, is less-than-satisfied with the area. But I was more than satisfied.

    John Hitchcock (352725)


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