Tag Archives: The Battle Hymn of the Republic

A Heartwarming Moment at DCA

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I was at the end of more than a week of travel — two separate trips, one frantic day of laundry and work in between, flying, driving, more driving, new people, familiar people, introvert-stressing PEOPLE all over the damn place.  Finally back at DCA ready to fly home, tired, grungy, grumpy … when I started hearing applause across the terminal.  Sustained, widespread applause.  Turns out a planeload of World War II veterans were flying in for some sort of ceremony.  The airline had announced this, and all of my fellow frazzled Friday-afternoon flyers had lined up on each side of the path the vets traveled from the gate all the way to security and were enthusiastically applauding.

In the center of the photo is an older man with a ball cap showing he is a WWII vet. He is walking through an airport terminal surrounded on both sides by lines of people clapping for him. In the right foreground is a woman's hands, clapping. To the left are more people --- a man in a red shirt a woman in a green flowered shirt , a man in a suit -- all clapping.

Some of the wildest applause came for the handful of female veterans.

An older woman in a wheelchair in an airport terminal. She wears a ballcap that says World War II veteran. She is beautiful and is wearing elegant make up, nail polish and jewelry, as well as a blue polo shirt and white sweater. To the left of the photo, a younger woman leans in, smiling, to speak to the woman in the wheelchair, while a man in a bright yellow shirt and hat stands behind the wheelchair. In the back ground, a crowd of people look toward an airport gate, clapping.

And they had a lone musician — a French horn player — playing in each group of vets with a patriotic — or at least jaunty — tune.

To the right of the photo, an older man in a straw hat with a red and blue hat band sits holding a French horn, looking toward a music stand with sheet music. In the background, an airline terminal with passengers standing facing the same direction as the musician, some clapping.

After he had exhausted military and patriotic classics like High Flying Flag, that Marine tune that always comes through in my head as “Be Kind To Your Web-Footed Friends,” Battle Hymn of the Republic and — to my extreme joy — This Land is Your Land, he turned to random jauntiness:  She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain; I’m a Little Teapot; Oh Susanna!

It was a truly wonderful thing.  The vets were beaming, the crowd was smiling and — here and there — tearing up.  It took all of us out of our various travel modes (grumpy; hostile; exhausted) and brought us together for a few minutes, appreciating the hard work and real sacrifice of these amazing people.