A few years back I was flying DL PHL-ATL. It was a rainy/stormy afternoon & flights were being cancelled and delayed all over the place due to weather and maintenance issues. I noticed a soldier in the gate area and watched as a couple of times DL personnel went to speak to him and walked with him away from the gate. I thought maybe they were taking him to a USO lounge to wait out the delay. Didn't think much about it as I went off to the CRC to see about getting re-booked on the earliest possible flight.

I ended up being seated in the same row as that soldier & in the course of conversation with our 3rd seatmate he said he was 'escorting a soldier home'. At first I didn't realize what he meant and I thought to myself, where's the other soldier? Then he told us about how great the DL personnel had been. He had been moved to a different flight due to the IROP (maybe even twice, don't recall all the details) and they brought him down to the ramp while the casket was moved. He said despite the pouring rain and the overall stress of the IROP, everyone handled the transfer with the full respect deserved.

I know DL has a lot of former military personnel and have heard about pilots & other crew taking part in this process for fallen soldiers. Nice to hear about the good things they're doing for a change. ^