yeppers, seen this before...I usually walk right up and thank them...surprised one soldier so much he didn't know what to say! These fine Americans need to know they are appreciated. It is hard enough to be away from family, protecting our borders and our rights, make them feel like their efforts mean something...
As an interesting aside...I was on a base yesterday when a soldiers mother came in to get her sons truck, as he had just been deployed. He had parked his truck at the far end of the PX parking lot, it was the next morning when she came to get it, only to find out it wasn't there. The MP's she was talking to said, "are you sure he didn't loan it out to someone?" Come to find out, they had it towed and gave her quite the run-around, not offering any information about who might have been the towing company, or where it was towed to. It irked me to no end, watching this exchange...she continued to be very polite with the guy, when I left an hour later, she was still trying to get some kind of information...pretty sad!