SOLDIERS AND SUSHI

Todd Spoth — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:37:26 +0000

Yesterday was a whirlwind day in my life as a photojournalist. I was originally slated to start my Veterans’ Day late shift off with a few photos to accompany a restaurant review at 3pm, until I got a call from our DOP (director of photography) asking me to be at Fort Carson, the nearby Army base, at noon. When I arrived I met up with our military reporter and a handful of other media personnel. We were escorted onto the base and led to the Welcome Center where there was to be a group of soldiers arriving for a homecoming. This was one of those experience events. Ones you may see on TV or read about, but that you never quite understand the scope of until you are there. The Welcome Center was a small gym type facility that was packed to capacity with friends and family of the 759th Military Police Battalion. Apparently this particular group of men had not been home in over a year and had a pretty rough time in Iraq, completing dangerous missions and losing a number of their own in the process. The soldiers arrived from the airport on two chartered buses complete with a police escort. They marched into the center in formation and saluted the gathered crowd with restraint as their friends and family went nuts. After a small word and the singing of the national anthem it was complete chaos. An indescribable flood of emotion that almost had me in tears at one point. Regardless of my thoughts about our current government and war, I could not deny the fact that these men, some younger than I, have seen so much in the past year and they were getting to see their wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, etc for the first time in a long time and it was amazing to say the least. At one point a father, also a veteran, placed his hand on one of the older commander’s shoulders and said, “Thanks for bringing my son home.” Both of the grown men completely broke down into tears at that point. The first image is one of Staff Sgt. Matthew Frye kissing his wife Farrah during the ceremony. It ran as the main art, A1, today. The lighting inside the center was horrid, but its OK…the moment is telling in and of itself. After that event, I headed to my restaurant review which surprisingly was at a smaller Japanese grill. I had a great time talking to the owners and chef about my being Japanese and we made some neat images of their food and restaurant. Their famed stuffed mushrooms, which I tried and loved, against my better journalistic judgement were awesome. Hey, they review was already written and we couldn’t let the food go to waste, right? I obliged and instead let the food go to waist.

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SOLDIERS AND SUSHI