TODD: We talked about his consistency of principles, and one of those was that Rush just loved the members of our military. I won’t tell it again because I told it last time I was honored to fill in for Rush and I just about broke into tears then, of how he displayed that love on a personal basis.
I have even have more stories about that sometime when it’s my turn to tell stories. Today it’s others’ turns and Rush’s voice. Rush got a display of this. In fact, this was put on a touching, just beautiful display in a call Rush took from a military kid who said that Rush was her home.
RUSH: Here’s Amy in Fort Eustis, Virginia. Amy, thank you for calling and waiting. Nice to have you on the program.
CALLER: Thank you so much for taking my call, Rush. I’m very excited to be talking to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I just wanted to call, first let me tell you a little bit about myself really quick. I grew up an Air Force brat. My father did not retire until I was a freshman in college. Then when I was 20, I married a man who had just finished up flight school in the Army, and that was almost 15 years ago. So my whole life I know the military lifestyle, that’s about all I know. Along with that comes moving around —
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: — all the time. I’ll be 35 years old this year. I am in my 21st house in my life —
RUSH: Whoa ho-ho-ho!
CALLER: Yes, we move all the time. The Army has moved us eight times in the last 14 years. But, you know, I’m not complaining about that, I like it, it’s always an adventure.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: But I was just talking with my mom the other day and none of my family lives anywhere that I ever lived growing up because they have moved around as well, so I really don’t have a concept of going home anywhere. I go visit family, but it’s not really my home, it’s a strange city, you know, and we were trying to think of what constitutes home for me, and of course wherever my husband and my kids are, that certainly helps, but also I had this realization that no matter where I have lived, especially over the past ten years or so, I have had Rush Limbaugh. We have the radio everywhere, and I can just turn it on, and I wanted to thank you for being, I guess my stability and my home, especially for the past ten or 12 years.
RUSH: Wow. I don’t know what to say. That is so sweet. That’s so nice. Sweet’s a metrosexual word.
CALLER: Well, you’re much more attractive than the new Brawny man.
RUSH: Well, thank you. Thank you. I agree with that. Wow, I’m not often speechless and I’m not speechless now because I’m talking, but that’s one of the nicest things anybody’s ever said to me.
CALLER: Well, thank you. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.
RUSH: That you would take the time, of all things to take the time to call about, to thank me for that or to mention that, that’s very, very touching. Of all the things you obviously have going on in your life, to stop what you’re doing today and make this phone call is —
CALLER: I’m actually sitting outside the Fort Eustis military base because I can’t talk on my cell phone when I’m on the post —
RUSH: So you left your home to make the call, even?
CALLER: I was driving, and I wasn’t sure I was going to get through and I thought while I was driving I would try, and of course I got through, so I pulled over and I’m sitting here. It’s at least 180 degrees out here, and I’m not going to be able to get my grocery shopping done because now I have to go pick up my kids, but we’ll just go out to dinner tonight and celebrate that I got to talk to you, and it’s a good day.
RUSH: Well, that is so nice. I wish my mother were alive to hear you say that. I really do — my mother — this would make her so proud. It would wash away whatever bad memories she might have of me for at least a couple days.
RUSH: No, no. I’m kidding. This would be something she’d be telling all of her friends about.
CALLER: Well, good.
RUSH: She was always so excited when anybody loved her little boy.
CALLER: Well, we absolutely do here, and we talk about you and your show, and my husband has received one of the 24/7 for the military, one of the subscriptions.
RUSH: The Adopt-A-Soldier thing.
CALLER: Yes. And so when he is traveling around, he logs in and when he’s not able to listen to you during the day, he logs in and can get updated. So we just enjoy you and enjoy your show, and I wanted to tell you that you are like home for me. So thank you.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that more than you know.
TODD: From Rush being home to a military kid, to a gentleman who had escorted Rush when he went to Afghanistan: Dan joins us live now on the Rush Limbaugh program from Spencer, Massachusetts. Dan, welcome to Rush’s show. This Todd Herman filling in. Tell us about escorting Rush in Afghanistan.
CALLER: So it was 2004, and I was a sergeant in the Air Force at the time, and when his plane landed, I had the privilege and honor of greeting his plane and escorting around the flight line and, you know, guiding him around and making sure he was safe. I walked on the plane, and walked up to him and said, “Mr. Limbaugh, it’s an honor to meet you.”
I never called him “Rush.” I just didn’t feel like… I wanted to call him “Mr. Limbaugh,” and so for a very short period of time, I got one-on-one time with him, and we talked. And when I said, “It’s an honor to meet you,” he extended his hands and said, “No, it’s an honor to meet you.”
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: (choking up) And I’m getting emotional here because —
TODD: So am I.
CALLER: It was an amazing day.
TODD: Yeah. I have a friend who was there, and you may know her. I’m not gonna say her name on Rush’s show. But she got to be with Rush as well. What was he like around the troops?
CALLER: He was there for us! It wasn’t about him, and I think he got more pleasure possibly than we did by greeting us.
TODD: Hmm.
CALLER: He was an amazing, amazing person. He inspired me (choking up) and my crew that I was there with, in his passing, we’ve kind of gotten together through our social media, and we’ve been sharing pictures and stories of that day. And all of us say like your last caller said, “That was a great day.”
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: And it stands out as one of my greatest days in the military. And I was on the air about a year and a half after I was there. I called in, and I was on the show with Rush, and we had a great conversation about this same event.
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: And he put our picture —
TODD: (laughing)
CALLER: — on the website that weekend —
TODD: I love it.
CALLER: — which was mind-blowing.
TODD: I love it.
TODD: Yep.
CALLER: He sent me a shirt and pullover —
TODD: Yes.
CALLER: — and he printed the picture, and about a week later I get a package in the mail from him that he had printed my picture, signed it, and mailed it to me. I have no idea how he got my address.
TODD: Well, come on.
CALLER: I have my suspicions.
TODD: He is Rush Limbaugh. He could put a call in to anybody and reach out. Hey, listen, you know, sometimes even in the midst of great stories, the clock is sometimes the enemy. There’s this thing it’s called the hard break.
CALLER: I understand but —
TODD: Can I just tell you one thing?
CALLER: After all he was to Kathryn —
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: — my sincerest condolences. She was wonderful to him, and they were wonderful together.
TODD: Indeed. Indeed. I’m gonna have to cut in here, Dan, ’cause the clock’s gonna cut us off. I need to tell you, because I can feel our family in EIB saying, “Todd, you better” and I want to say, “We’re really honored that you got to be there to escort and protect our Rush while you were there and welcome home.”
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