Two veterans, one pizza slice, and a stranger's $50 thank-you

John Christina, a Vietnam veteran, was sharing a slice of pizza at the Costco food court in Riverhead, New York, with another veteran — a former Green Beret he had just met — when a woman at the next table tapped him on the shoulder. She had been listening to the two men swap stories of their service, and she handed each of them a $50 Costco gift card: a thank-you, she said, for their service. Christina, historian for his local American Legion post, was so caught off guard he forgot to ask her name. With Veterans Day approaching, he is now looking for the woman from Shelter Island — not for another gift, but to thank her back. 'This is the America I love,' he said.