My husband is a United Airlines mechanic of 20 years (and a former U.S. Marine) and he recently got to experience a most selfless and patriotic act of kindness. As many people are unaware, United Airlines has been transporting servicemen and servicewomen back and forth from the Middle East almost since the inception of the Iraqi crisis, stopping in Frankfurt, Germany, before heading on to Kuwait and returning home. Recently my husband was picked to travel with the United flight crew to transport 250 Army Rangers who had just completed serving for 18 months in Iraq and were waiting to return home.
As is standard operating procedure, the support crew of mechanics was given approximately 36 hours notice that they would be leaving on this particular flight to assist with military transport.
During this 36-hour period prior to the flight leaving, the family of United mechanic Greg Fornek, my husband’s co-mechanic, organized a community cookie drive to welcome home the military that would be returning on this flight.
In one day Fornek and his wife and their family rallied the community to bake hundreds of cookies. The Forneks baked, wrapped and placed a note in each hand-baked care package.
Together the Forneks and their community put together 263 wrapped packages of homemade baked goods–one to be placed on each seat on this 777. When our returning soldiers climbed aboard in Kuwait to return home, they were welcomed with this wonderful act of kindness to thank them for serving in our military. The response was overwhelming–not only from our servicemen and servicewomen but from the flight crew that was traveling with them.
Many thanks to our wonderful servicemen and servicewomen, and to families such as the Forneks who demonstrate such thoughtfulness and kindness to help recognize those who serve.
