Cross-Country Headlines

**Doug Pike** (0:01)
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote? Because you were the TV remote? Remember when music sounded like this?
Remember when social media was truly social?

**Doug Pike** (0:17)
Hey John, how's it going today? Good, man.

**Doug Pike** (0:19)
Well, this show is all about you.
This is 50 Plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
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**Doug Pike** (0:52)
All right, we have been cleared for takeoff on this Wednesday edition of Fifty Plus. One in which I'll be bouncing back and forth around and across the country to share little bits of information I find interesting as I prepare for this hour. I seldom start prepping for a show with any specific topic in mind really.
And I actually consider that a good thing because for one thing to be so important, it usually winds up being something negative. And I try not to go down that path any more than necessary when I'm doing Fifty Plus. Most everybody in our age category has lived through plenty of negativity and doesn't need a whole lot more. I will tackle news items that are maybe unsettling or maybe make you squirm in your chair a little bit.
And that just needs to be done, but I'm not going to overdo it, if that makes any sense. And with all that being said, let's get started. While I'm still in a patriotic mood on the heels of this country's 250th birthday, I want to share something I read yesterday about something that happened in the immediate aftermath of 9-11. And the story really, really touched me so much that, and sadly, my first instinct was, hey, you need to go check this out to make sure it's not AI.
I checked it out, it's not AI. It's a really interesting, fascinating story about something that happened on that horrible, horrible day in American history.
Pentagon employs thousands of people, many of them new parents, it turns out, and for those new parents, Pentagon brass set up a big daycare center within those five walls, and shortly after that hijacked jet crashed into the Pentagon, the few people in charge of a few dozen infants and toddlers weren't really sure how to get all those kids out and get them safe.
At one point, one of the women from the center saw a marine running through the hall, flagged him down, explained the situation. The marine then just turned and ran out, leaving the woman to think that she and her modest staff and those kids were going to be on their own, but they weren't. Within a minute or so, that one marine returned with about 20 more marines and other service members. Some grabbed the heavy cribs loaded with infants, others herded the toddlers out onto the lawn, but they didn't stop until they were nearly a quarter mile away from that destruction. The marines and soldiers then had the wherewithal to use those heavy cribs to create kind of a circle, and they put all the kind of like wagons, circling the wagons under attack.
Back from, boy, anybody who watched Gunsmoke or what else? Bonanza? I think Bonanza... I don't think Bonanza had too many circled wagons, but I'm sure if you were from this generation that I'm in, you've seen enough Westerns to know what circling the wagons means. So anyway, they circled the cribs to keep the toddlers from wandering off, and then they all stayed. Every one of those marines, every one of those soldiers, sailors, whoever was there, Air Force personnel, I don't know. But all of them stayed around until every one of those kids' parents had been notified and the parents had come and picked up their children. One by one, those servicemen and women took care of more than 120, 140, something like that, young children, who I'm sure were frightened, who I'm sure had no idea what was going on.
But I'm also sure felt pretty comfortable and safe in the hands of those people. These are trained fighters. And then instead of fighting anybody, they just safeguarded more than 140 children that day. And there was one other thing that the guy who wrote this story said, or wrote, that really struck a chord with me, too. He said that it's not politicians who keep us safe and warm and out of harm's way. It's our military. And if you stop and think about that, that is so right. God forbid, if we ever do have another war around here, it won't be politicians on the front lines. It'll be marines, it'll be soldiers, it'll be air force personnel, it'll be Navy personnel. Even the National Guard might have to get involved. And every one of those people will do that.