Welshtaff's Blog

A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry-on. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready." The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it." "Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!" The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn' t find any Frenchmen to show it to.

" You could have heard a pin drop.

Then there was a  conference in France where a number of international
engineers were  taking part, including French and American.

During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard  the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an  aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What  does he intended to do, bomb them?'

A  Boeing engineer stood up and  replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals  on board that  can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and  can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have  three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals  a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water  from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters  for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their  flight deck.. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have heard a pin  drop.

America has always been there; when everyone else turned their backs