I heard another good news story today, and I thought it was worth sharing.  As with most stories, it starts out with a crisis, but it has an amazing ending.

Craig Beddow, a National Guardsman, was serving with the 134th Logistics Squadron in Turkey when he got an emergency phone call from his wife.  His five year old daughter was in critical condition, having suffered a siezure.  His wife had given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, saving the child's life, but little Halle was now almost lifeless in intensive care at a facility specializing in the treatment of critically ill children.

Craig knew he had to try to get home, and both he and his wife started contacting the American Red Cross, in hopes of arranging both leave and some form of transportation home.  (Note:  to all families of deployed servicemen and women - have the number for your local Red Cross readily available, just in case you find yourself dealing with some family emergency that requires you to reach your soldier.)  The Beddow family hoped that Craig could make it home at some point, but you can't just pick up and leave a deployed unit on a moment's notice, especially when you are half way around the world.

At this point, the Air Force kicked into high gear.  The commander of the unit that Craig was in Turkey supporting, Col. Martinez, started trying to find some transport home.  Unfortunately, the only military plane leaving for Germany was having mechanical problems and commercial flights were unavailable.  However, there was one plane on the runway, ready to leave for Washington D.C. 

That plane was carrying none other than the Secretary of the Air Force, James G. Roche, and his chief of staff, Gen. John Jumper.  Upon hearing of the situation, Secretary Roche ordered the plane to wait.  They would get Craig to Andrews Air Force Base, where he could make connections to Knoxville and home.  The story would be amazing enough as it is, but somewhere over the Atlantic, things got even better.  The Secretary of the Air Force personally came to tell Craig that a decision had been made:  the plane was being diverted to Knoxville.  Said Secretary Roche, “We've been gone 11 days. What's a few more hours? We're going to take you to directly to Knoxville.”

So, with a little more help from the customs folks on the ground in Knoxville and the guardsmen friends who rushed him from the airport to the hospital, Craig Beddow was at his daughter's bedside, half way around the world, less than 24 hours after he got that first awful call from his wife.  As for little Halle, (who sat up when she saw her father, saying “Daddy's home!“) she has been released from the hospital after several days, to continue her recovery at home.

“We're like family out here at the base,” Craig said of his fellow National Guardsmen in the 134th Air Refueling Wing. “I just didn't realize the family reached all the way to the Secretary of the Air Force.”