Passenger Overhears Two Soldiers’ Whisper On Airplane, Gets To Flight Attendant As Quick As He Can

Jul 23, 2021

It was another ordinary flying day for Kenny Kukich until he had an opportunity to carry out an act of kindness. The story was then published on the Facebook page Love What Matters in 2016. 

As Kukich was getting ready to get settled on his assigned seat in the aircraft, he noticed that there were some soldiers boarding as well. In fact, a couple of the men were seated close to him.

"Where are you headed?" He recalled asking the soldier seated nearest to him. "Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan."

After about an hour of being airborne, a flight attendant made an announcement that they will be selling boxed lunches for five dollars each. With just a couple of hours left on the flight, buying lunch seemed like a good idea. 

As Kukich reached for his wallet, he overheard one of the soldiers asking his comrade if he is buying one of those in-flight packed lunches. 

"No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to base."

Noticing that none of the soldiers were buying any food, and thinking that some of them were really hungry, he felt he needed to do something for them. He wanted them to enjoy the flight and not feel hungry at all. With these thoughts in mind, he walked his way over to the flight attendant and handed her $50. 

"Take a lunch to all those soldiers." he told the flight attendant.

Overwhelmed by the man's gesture, with teary eyes and joy in her heart, the flight attendant whose son was in the military at one point and was stationed in Iraq blurted,

“I feel like you are also doing it for my son.”

Every one of the soldiers got their lunch and out of gratitude, the flight attendant treated Kukich with an inflight first-class meal. But the story did not end there. When Kukich got up to use the lavatory, another passenger told him that he saw what he did and wanted to do the same and handed him $25.

When the pilot heard of the Kukich's action, he made his way to the main cabin looking for him.

“I wanted to tell you that I was once a military pilot and someone bought me lunch too and it was a gesture that I’ll never forget,” shared the pilot while extending his hand to shake the man's hand.

At this point, it seems like the whole aircraft has heard of the act of kindness and wanted to give back as well. And so, two other men handed Kukich another $25 each. With all the money he gathered, he approached the soldiers and gladly handed them the money.

“As you make your way to the military base, you may want to stop for a quick bite.” 

It’s so nice to read stories like this. Doing good to others doesn’t necessarily have to involve money. As a community, we have a responsibility to treat everyone with kindness. Are you ready to take on this challenge? Be kind and let that kindness resonates to the whole world.

What did you think about this man's actions? Would you have done the same? Let us know - and feel free to pass this along to all your loved ones