GOODBYE DESERT STORM; HELLO BANGOR, MAINE: Experience Welcoming the Troops Through the Eyes of the Greeters, by Lynne Junkins Cole, published by the author, 211 pages, $19.95.

I remember the night of March 8 of this year like it happened yesterday.

The calls started coming from everywhere just after the evening news. Bangor was the topic of interest on the national scene — and for a good reason. The Desert Storm troops were returning home, and the tumultuous greeting they were receiving at Bangor International Airport was becoming a story of widespread interest.

There in the airport terminal — a place familiar to all of us — a young soldier stood quietly, the eyes of a grateful nation upon him, playing a soulful rendition of our national anthem with a tenor saxophone he had borrowed from a youngster from the John Bapst High School band.

Army Sgt. Kevin Tillman’s solo captured the spirit of the moment for an entire nation, and a feeling of pride and relief swept over us there.

Little did we know at the time, but the patriotism and enthusiasm shown in Bangor that day would continue uninterrupted for months to come.

In her book, “Goodbye Desert Storm; Hello Bangor, Maine,” author Lynne Junkins Cole captures the wonder of it all during those special days in Bangor after the Mideast conflict.

Her account is a first-person recollection of a shining day for Americans. It was a time when mothers such as Cole were relieved that their own sons soon would be coming home.

It was a time when other veterans of foreign wars such as the author’s husband, Bob, a Vietnam veteran, could engage in the healing process and perhaps vicariously live and feel the love of a worried but proud nation embracing them as well as the troops coming through the gates into the arms of the admiring crowds.

This is a diary of sorts, a collection of thoughts and perceptions of the most inner feelings of the troop greeters, the troops, the flight attendants, and other bystanders as they witnessed the spectacle that unfolded in our back yard for more than six months.

Lynne Cole’s account is vividly emotional. It expresses the thoughts of people who learned the harsh lessons of Scud missiles and lived with the fear of chemical warfare during a time in our lives which is normally devoted to holiday cheer and the prospects of a new year.

Perhaps Bangor Daily News staffer Dick Shaw summed it up best in his May 24 column when he said: “Maybe it was our time to show the world what we were made of. I think we passed the audition with flying colors.”

Bangor and its surrounding communities did themselves proud, and because of people like Lynne Cole, the memory of that experience will live on.

Hats off to Cole for a warm account of a time that touched all of our lives.

The book is for sale from the author at P.O. Box 444, Hampden 04444, add sales tax and $3 shipping and handling; and from Betts Bookstore, BookMarc’s, and Husson College bookstore in Bangor, and V&S Variety in Hampden.

Ron Brown is a free-lance writer who resides in Bangor.