American Moment

Flew back yesterday, Aug. 28, from Washington DC. Changed plays at DFW in Dallas for the last leg to Austin. I was sitting in almost the last row of an American Airlines jet next to a U.S. Army soldier, a young white guy in combat fatigues, seem to be the standard uniform, and a tall, friendly African-American guy sat on the other side of the soldier on the aisle. I eavesdropped on their conversation and learned the tall guy grew up as an Army brat as a kid and knew about the military environment. As they spoke I learned the military guy had a wife in Austin about to give birth to their first child, a baby girl. As we neared Austin, a flight stewardess approached the military kid (looked early twenties) and said she wanted to make sure he was the first off the plane so he could get to the hospital, hopefully in time to see his baby born. A minute or two later she got on the PA system and asked the passengers to remain seated when we made it to the gate, so the soldier could be the first to depart. She came back on moments later and said a first class passenger had volunteered to give his seat to the soldier. She asked the soldier to get his bags and move to the front of the plane. The passengers applauded the thoughtful gesture. The plane kind of took a nasty bump at that time as we descended. I got a bit nervous-- thought maybe we were getting too much ceremony here in the cabin, but things leveled off. The stewardess added in her final announcement how it was nice that they were still "good people in the world." Not sure if she meant the American soldier or the first class passenger or both? In either case, the chain of events added a human touch to the end of my journey.