Claim: Civilians give up their seats on commercial flight to soldiers on leave from Iraq.
Status: True.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2003]
Dear Friends and Family, I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on Monday, I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to what train terminals were like in World Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers a bad time. By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heart-felt applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went to Denver on that flight. That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we will win this war. If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it happen. Will Ross |
Origins: We went straight to the putative source for this item and contacted Will Ross, who is now an administrative judge with the Defense Department's Office of Hearings and Appeals in
Since the Defense Department began granting two-week leaves to
In November 2003, a group of students at Bear Creek High School in Stockton, California, raised $700 to help bring a former graduate of their school home from Iraq.
Last updated: 16 October 2007
Sources: