I needed a wheelchair and attendant to make the trip south. I was greeted in Baltimore by a Southwest employee with a wheelchair and he quickly whisked me toward my connecting terminal, a long distance away but I had plenty of time to kill. The attendant apparently did not know that, for he was pushing hard and passing other wheelchairs and even regular walkers.
As we rounded a corner an immense cheer broke out with people along the sides of the corridor applauding and standing. Of course I was taken aback, and didn't know what was going on. As I passed to another terminal, the applause behind me increased. I asked the attendant what was going on and he told me that a plane with WWII vets, most of them in wheelchairs, had disembarked and were attending the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe, and we somehow got in the middle of it.
As I was only a -2 at the end of WWII, I was at first embarrassed. Then, upon reflection I thought, hey they thought I looked old enough to have fought in WWII!
As happy and proud as I was of both the soldiers and the crowd, I couldn't help but think about how airport crowds greeted veterans of the Viet Nam era. It sometimes got pretty ugly.
I remember an army sergeant telling us to got out of our uniforms and into civvies as soon as possible.
