USO tour to Afghanistan gives Browns' Joe Thomas a chance to meet 'a real hero,'

[BlueStateSaint]

I found this on Hugh Hewitt's blog on Townhall.  Make sure that you read the email that Joe Thomas sent to the SGT's mother.  Pure class.

USO tour to Afghanistan gives Browns' Joe Thomas a chance to meet 'a real hero,' gain some new fans

By Mary Schmitt Boyer, The Plain Dealer
March 22, 2010, 10:00PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Joe Thomas went to Afghanistan hoping to touch the lives of the soldiers fighting there, but it was he who came away touched by the courage and humility of a real hero.
 
Traveling with three other Pro Bowl players on the NFL-USO Tour the first week of March, the Browns' left tackle was introduced to Sgt. Eric Harder of Crystal, Minn. According to Thomas, Harder has received a Purple Heart and is up for the Silver Star for extraordinary heroism and valor in the face of the enemy for his role in a major battle at COP Keating on Oct.3, in which eight U.S. soldiers were killed.

"I didn't even spend that much time with him, maybe 15 minutes, but he had a profound effect on me," Thomas said recently in a phone call from Hawaii, where he was attending NFL Players Association meetings.
 
When Thomas got home from the USO tour, he went online to research Harder and the battle. Eventually, he found an e-mail address for Harder's mother, Mary Henry, and wrote to her. Henry was moved to tears by the e-mail and wrote a letter to The Plain Dealer complimenting Thomas and declaring herself the newest Browns fan.

"The most irritating thing about this war, in my opinion, is that day-to-day people aren't moved by it," Henry said in a telephone interview earlier this month. "When I turn on the news, the lead story is about David Letterman or something."

The rest of the article, and the two emails, are at:

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2010/03/uso_tour_to_afghanistan_gives.html

Again, pure class.