Flight to Phoenix delayed on account of heroes

Passengers crowded into the seating area of the gate at Chicago's Midway Airport were eager to board the airplane that would take us to Phoenix. Most of us had been at the gate for a long time, and it was nearly half an hour past the time we were supposed to have boarded. We were anxious, slightly irritated, and now most of us had risen from our seats and faced the door leading to the gangway that was connected to the plane and we were … cheering.

The weather inside the crowded terminal had changed. A sudden wave of bravery, patriotism and old-fashioned grit was passing through, blowing out any gloominess.

Our flight was delayed on account of heroes.

We'd been told that an "honor flight" of veterans from Kansas had arrived in Chicago for a connecting flight to Washington, D.C. Many of the veterans on board were from World War II. Most of them were taken off the plane in wheelchairs. Each time one of them appeared in the doorway, the passengers in the waiting area burst into applause.

One after another after another.

The old vets passed through a gantlet of clapping passengers as they rolled through the waiting area and down to their connecting gate. Smiling. Waving. Shaking hands. Giving high fives. Exchanging occasional hugs.

The Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization that flies veterans for free to Washington to visit the memorials honoring their service and sacrifice. When I wrote about this online for azcentral.com earlier this week, I heard from a number of family members of veterans from World War II.

One of them told me, "I want to show my dad the story you wrote about the airport, but I don't want to do so with a printout from my computer. He's like a lot of these guys from that generation. He doesn't own a computer. He doesn't have what he calls 'the Google.' Maybe one way you could honor guys like him, and reach a bunch of others, would be to put your online blog in the newspaper as a regular column."

My father never owned a computer. He didn't have "the Google."

He never owned a cellphone. Never read an e-book. Never watched a movie on Netflix or an HBO program or anything that wasn't on "free" TV. He didn't like microwave ovens. Never owned a refrigerator with an ice maker or built-in water dispenser. He preferred to listen to baseball games on the radio. He paid with cash.

And yet, somehow, before most of us were born, my father and a bunch of other men and women from his generation managed to save the world.

About 25 of those veterans, from Kansas, recently were on the flight passing through Chicago, on their way to Washington, D.C.

The weather around Midway is always dicey, and on this day there were intermittent storm cells and high winds. Normally, passengers get irritated when their departure is postponed. But not this time. Instead, the cheering men, women and children in the waiting area of that gate at Midway felt lucky. And grateful.