Members of the U.S. Armed Forces are often – and rightly – given special treatment at the airport, but that doesn’t extend to getting a good place to sit.
They may be able to board first, but they’re just as likely as the rest of us to get stuck in the dreaded middle seat.
An encounter to remember
Back in April of 2017, a passenger named Jessica Titus witnessed an interaction between a civilian and a woman in uniform that she felt compelled to write about.
She sent a short description of the encounter to Love What Matters and the Facebook post has now been liked tens of thousands of times and commented on by hundreds of people.
She began by setting the scene:
“On my flight Tuesday, I walked down the jetway behind a woman in uniform (Army). A man stood up from his 1st class seat and said, ‘Sorry ma’am, I’m in your seat.'”
But, curiously, he had a ticket for the very seat he was sitting in.
Titus was boarding right behind the servicewoman and witnessed the whole scene. The group was headed towards the coach section but stopped when the man spoke up.
The servicewomen looked at him with some confusion.
“What does your ticket say?” he asked.
When she replied that she was, in fact, in seat 31B and that everything was in order, he handed her his ticket and walked away.
Titus explained:
“He walked away, leaving her with his first class seat and then took her middle seat in coach.”
First-class treatment
Not content to watch a member of the Armed Forces sit in coach, he gave up his own posh seating arrangement so that the soldier could be more comfortable. And he didn’t let her argue – he simply went and took the seat in coach without any fanfare.
Titus snapped a photo of the man from behind along with a note she wrote and asked a flight attendant to deliver to him. She was touched by the gesture and wanted to do something equally kind for him.
One good deed deserves another
Titus included a bit of cash with her note that read:
“Seat 31 B — Please accept a drink or snack on me. If everyone treated people the way you treated the service-woman, the world would be a better place.”
But the man didn’t do it for recognition. And while he seemed to appreciate the gesture, he didn’t feel comfortable accepting it.
Titus concluded:
“Spoiler alert, he refused my offer. Do good. Recognize good. Make the world better.”
As you might imagine, the story warmed a lot of hearts.
“I [really] love people sometimes, some do great things for no reason except for it being the right thing to do. And the person sending money for the drink was a great thing to do,” said one reader.
In the age of social media, it seems that many people have grown weary of so-called “good deeds” posted online. But they mean more coming from a witness, especially when the person doing good doesn’t want any attention for it.
“Class all the way–no self aggrandizing and gracefully refusing offer of reward,” remarked a commenter.
Be sure to scroll down below to see the original post and the hundreds of comments it elicited.
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