A World War II veteran pulled into a Chick-fil-A in Maryland distraught because he had a flat tire.
A manager, Daryl Howard, rushed out to help.
That’s when co-worker Sarah Howard snapped a picture of Howard helping the man out.
The vet was later identified as Mr. Lee. “Thank you Daryl, God bless your heart,” Wagner said, reported CBS Baltimore.
Rudy Somoza, another manager at the Severn location, said that the vet, who is known to come into the fast-food restaurant from time to time, approached the register and explained he had a flat tire.
“He was shaking, almost in tears saying he barely made it to the store on three tires because one was bad,” Somoza told CNN.
“As soon as he finished his sentence, Daryl informed me he needed to help this gentleman right now,” Somoza said. “So, Daryl jumped into action without hesitation.”
Somoza, who also snapped a picture of what happened, said that his co-worker “has always been so helpful to anyone in need and deserves this recognition.”
96-year-old WWII veteran came into Chick-fil-A with a flat tire, so the manager rushed out to fix it https://t.co/0zDKIFTUVG via @fox8news
— fox8news (@fox8news) July 12, 2019
Last year, Chick-fil-A gave a vet free food for the rest of his life.
Ernie, another World War II vet, 92, enjoys the children’s chicken nuggets meal there along with a root beer.
The owner of the Avon location in Indiana, Chris Tincher, a veteran himself, wanted to thank Ernie for his service.
“This is the all-American grandpa, I think. He just, I mean, he just makes you feel good,” he said.
“We’re just fascinated because he’s always like, ‘Well, I just mowed my lawn’, and he push mows,” added Melissa Luebbert, Chick-fil-A Avon’s executive director.
“He’s just so warm, and anytime you take his food to him, and he’d be, he’d ask how we were doing and then it got to where we just built a friendship.”
Video Shows Worker Saving Life of Choking Man at Chick-Fil-A
Last year, video footage showed an employee at a Chick-fil-A in Texas saving the life of a choking man.
The customer started choking at a restaurant in the Southpark Meadows shopping center in Austin in June, prompting the employee to rush over.
“I was wiping tables and then I heard the gentleman start to choke, and I saw the lady that was at the table next to him get up and start doing the Heimlich,” Anita Duran, who works in the dining room of the restaurant, told Fox 7.
Duran ran to the kitchen to get team leader Hunter Harris.
After another customer unsuccessfully tried the Heimlich maneuver, Harris took over and successfully completed the maneuver, dislodging the object that wasn’t letting the customer breathe.
“There was a lady previously in our kitchen that was choking and I gave her the Heimlich maneuver, so I had felt that experience and understood the urgency of that situation,” Harris said.
“To me, he’s a hero,” said Duran. “He could’ve died.”
Harris said he’s just glad the customer is okay.
“It means a lot to me that he is okay, and that I’m glad that I was there in that position at that time to help him,” said Hunter.
Harris’s father Jamie Harris, who owns the franchise, told KVUE that his son’s actions didn’t surprise him.
“His character is to jump in and help when help is needed. You could see that it was natural for him. Very proud of that,” Jamie Harris said.
A Chick-fil-A representative said that after the incident, the customer finished his meal before departing.
According to the National Safety Council, choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. More than half of the people who died from choking in 2015 were over the age of 74. The website provides instructions on how to properly perform the Heimlich Maneuver.
