Korean War veterans come to D.C. and get the welcome they never had

Korean War veterans come to D.C. and get the welcome they never had
By: Meghan Cox Gurdon |
11/19/11
Examiner Columnist
The young college graduate had not planned to be at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last weekend, waiting for an old man he'd never met.

A few weeks earlier, though, a friend's stray remark had lodged in his mind. On impulse, he had sent an inquiring email. A positive message had come back, and now here he was, walking across the gleaming floor toward a row of unsmiling security personnel and lines of scanning machines.

A moment or two later, he was through to the arrivals area -- and that's when he heard the applause. A group of Korean War vets from northern Alabama was moving through the crowds of commuters, but not very quickly, because so many people wanted to thank them.

"Everyone was stopping and clapping and shaking their hands," the young man told me. "It was really moving to see, in a place as partisan as D.C., and you could tell from the faces of the veterans that they were surprised."

Amid the throng, one of the elderly men raised his red-and-white hat, and waved it. This signified two things: One, that even on Veterans Day weekend his dearest allegiance was evidently to Alabama's Crimson Tide football team; and two, that he'd seen the young man waiting for him.
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