this is beautiful

This is an email that my mom sent me earlier today. When I read it is gave me the chills and I started to cry a little. They were happy tears though.

I am sure everyone is a little tired of diary entries about things that happened because of September 11th, but this so warmed my heart, I felt the need to do this.

Here goes:

A note from a Navy Ensign
AN ENCOURAGING WORD
Below is an e-mail from a young ensign aboard the USS Winston Churchill to his parents. (Churchill is an Arleigh Burke-class AEGIS guided-missile destroyer, commissioned March 10, 2001, and is the only active U.S. Navy warship named after a foreign national.)

Dear Dad,
We are still at sea. The remainder of our port visits have all been cancelled. We have spent every day since the attacks going back and forth within imaginary boxes drawn in the ocean, standing high-security watches, and trying to make the best of it. We have seen the articles and the photographs, and they are sickening. Being isolated, I don't think we appreciate the full scope of what is happening back home, but we are definitely feeling the effects.

About two hours ago, we were hailed by a German Navy destroyer, Lutjens, requesting permission to pass close by our port side. Strange, since we're in the middle of an empty ocean, but the captain acquiesced and we prepared to render them honors from our bridge wing.

As they were making their approach, our conning officer used binoculars and announced that Lutjens was flying not the German, but the American flag. As she came alongside us, we saw the American flag flying half-mast and her entire crew topside standing at silent, rigid attention in their dress uniforms. They had made a sign that was displayed on her side that read We Stand By You.

There was not a dry eye on the bridge as they stayed alongside us for a few minutes and saluted. It was the most powerful thing I have seen in my life.

The German Navy did an incredible thing for this crew, and it has truly been the highest point in the days since the attacks. It's amazing to think that only half-century ago things were quite different.

After Lutjens pulled away, the Officer of the Deck, who had been planning to get out later this year, turned to me and said, "I'm staying Navy.

I'll write you when I know more about when I'll be home, but this is it for now."

Love you guys,

This is a picture of that German ship and it’s crew that so raised the sprits of the crew of the USS Winston Churchhill.