Alex Carson
Armed Forces
The men and women who choose to join the armed forces make unbelievable sacrifices. They leave their friends, family members, and their lives so that they can travel around the world fighting for the freedom and the safety of every citizen of the United States. When a soldier leaves for duty, there is no guarantee that they will ever make it home. Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ridson is one of these soldiers.
Fort Benning
Robert is a father of two, and he is stationed at Fort Benning. When he has time off, he goes off base from time to time to visit friends and grab a bite to eat. One cold afternoon, he went to the local Taco Bell for lunch. He was sitting at his table when he saw two young boys come into the restaurant. The boys were just 9-years-old and 12-years-old. They both looked cold, wet and tired. It was dinnertime, but the boys weren’t at Taco Bell to eat. This soldier goes to order Taco Bell meal stops cold when he hears 2 boys behind him.
Raising Money For Their Local Church
The two boys went to Taco Bell to sell homemade desserts to raise money for their local church. They figured that dinnertime would be the best time for them to try to make the sales because it was one of the restaurant’s busiest times of the day. The boys approached Robert and asked him if he wanted to buy a dessert to help their church. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any cash on him. He had paid for his meal with a bank card.
Two Options
When the boys who were clearly tired and cold approached Robert, he could have done one of two things. He could have told the boys that she had no money and questioned them as to why their parents didn’t care that they were not home for dinner. Part of him wanted to ask this question, but he decided to go with his second option. He asked the boys if he had eaten, knowing full well that they hadn’t. When the boys told him that they hadn’t, he offered to buy them tacos and sodas. The smiles on the boys’ faces were thanks enough for Robert. Robert was in line ordering food for the two boys when a patron in the restaurant saw what was going on. He knew that Robert was doing something special and amazing for the boys, so he decided to get it on video.
More Than Just a Meal
When Robert and the boys were in line, they were very excited. They were hungry, and they were going to get a good meal. The boys got more than a meal from Robert. He also sat down with them and had a nice conversation.
Jason Gibson
Jason Gibson is the man who was sitting in Taco Bell that day and observed everything that happened. He thought that Robert was pretty amazing. He says that our troops are always taking care of us and what Robert did that day proved it even more.
Jason uploaded the footage of what happened that day in Taco Bell to Facebook. The post read, “I overheard a soldier ask the kids if they were hungry and told them to follow him to the counter. He would buy them dinner. I had to video it and share. Our troops are always taking care of us. Thank you LTC Robert Risdon. Please, please share this…I heard the little one say I want to be just like you when I grow up, and he saluted him.”
Viral Video
Jason uploaded the video to both Facebook and YouTube. It wasn’t long before the videos on both platforms were seen by hundreds of thousands of people. Jason couldn’t be happier. It wasn’t because he wanted attention for his viral video. It was because he wants people to see what an amazing person and soldier Robert is.
Huffington Post
After the videos went viral, it caught the attention of the Huffington Post. They reached out to Robert for a comment. He said, “I’m kinda embarrassed and humbled by the praise and don’t need it. I am a believer that we live in the best country in the world with the best people and that acts of kindness happen every day.”
10 The Little Things
What Robert did for the boys didn’t cost him a lot of money. It didn’t even take up much of his time. In most cases, it is the small things that mean the most. Robert was thrilled that he could take care of these boys and make him so happy that night. If everyone did one good deed for one person every day, the world would be a better place.
