The Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Hospital is one of the greatest places to just go and hang out if you're wanting to meet a bunch of old guys with the best humor known! They were so cute. I wanted to adopt every last one of them.
Faith was asked to do a little rehab film for Better Times Productions. We choose the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Hospital because we're from OKC, and what better place to show the love? We have some really cool vets here. Many of them were able to wheel themselves down to the dining room to gather in a larger group so we could film their reactions to seeing Faith, but many were not able to come down so we went door to door to greet as many as we could. We didn't take the Beta camera into every room, nothing like that, we were there to film yes, but we were there to love too.
We've decided to go back on a monthly basis if we can. The boys didn't mind, they were all up for that. One even challenged me to a shuffle board contest when I came really close to beating his score the first time out. I must have the luck of the newby! I was smokin! He just let me have it with his cane too - you gotta watch those men - they've been through battles. They know!
What I found to be so warming and so wonderful were the way they interacted with Faith. She's a little dog first, and handicapped or disabled second. They were just thrilled to see her hop right up and be their buddy. She didn't care if they had missing limbs - she has missing limbs. She was much much more interested in their sandwiches believe me. She was all about the bacon and chicken bits this one lady passed over to her, but she wasn't about to be rude about it - she offered to share! The boys declined, they let her have all of it for herself. They asked us to come back and we made a real promise - a salute was given, and you know you can't break a salute!
Many of the men were less ranked than Faith - they were E4 Specialists and Privates when they became injured in Viet Nam or Korea and had to leave. Her E5 Sgt rank left them feeling a bit giggly when they had to pretend to stand at ease and listen for her to bark out orders - but they did so with grace and love in their eyes as well as their hearts. OH, I love the vets! Can't wait to go back. We will too - you don't promise a soldier something and renege on it - that is NOT American! Love to you guys, Travis - thanks buddy!
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