Vice President Biden's visit to Naples!!



Waiting. . .



. . . and what to our wondering eyes should appear? Our Vice President, with very little notice to spare! Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden made somewhat of a surprise visit to NSA Naples, Italy, this past Saturday, June 4th, to speak to the service members and their families, with what I think may have been less than a week’s notice. As you can imagine, people have been scrambling like crazy to prepare for his impromptu stopover; nonetheless, it appeared to come off without a hitch! (thanks to some mighty fine planning and execution, no doubt!)



A sea of blue . . .



Can you spot the Marine? (ha!)



Me shaking hands and saying a few words to Dr. Biden.



Both the Vice President and his wife, Dr. Biden, were gracious, encouraging and compassionate to the troops and all those on the Piazza of Capodichino on Saturday. They each identified with having a son serving overseas (their son having served in Iraq), and how often the VP would see his wife preparing coffee, for example, in the morning her lips silently moving in prayer for their son.



The V.P. commenting to me that being a Chaplain's wife was one of the
hardest and most important in the military!



They each spoke of their thankfulness for our sacrifice, the service member as well as the families, and how much it means to our country. It was actually pretty inspiring when you’re just a few feet away listening to him. I could feel how genuine he was - they both were! It was a clear, hot day, and the Vice President seemed to go “off-speech” about half-way through his prepared remarks, out of compassion, no doubt, for the fact that it was so hot and that our heads and arms were roasting in the hot sun! He and his wife then took a lot of time afterwards to go around the line of people waiting to say hello and take a photos with them. And he did . . .  with far more people than I’d ever imagined he would have. In fact, he ended up staying and extra two and a half hours - until every last person who wanted a picture with him was able to get one. Much to the chagrin of his staff, his courteous lingering with the troops caused Air Force Two to depart much later than originally planned.




This is my favorite picture!




Ci Vediamo ~ Mimi  
 
(this means "so long" in Italian)