100-Year-Old Iwo Jima Survivor Gets the Sweetest In-Flight Tribute From a Flight Attendant

Some seatbelt reminders hit different. When a flight attendant picked up the cabin microphone to honor a passenger in Row 1, she told everyone on board that America doesn’t have royalty but it has something close, and that man was sitting right there. His name is Gordy, he’s a 100-year-old Battle of Iwo Jima survivor, and he landed on the island on his 20th birthday, Feb. 19, the very day the battle began.

Gordy’s granddaughter Kaitsy filmed the moment, from the announcement to the applause to Gordy taking off his hat and wiping his eyes. She posted the clip to TikTok on April 5, 2025, with a caption that read,“So honored and proud to call him my Grandpa.”The video has since drawn 12 million likes and over 500,000 saves.

Then the comments delivered another twist. One person shared that their own grandfather also fought at Iwo Jima and turned 100 on Feb. 17, just two days before Gordy’s birthday. Now plenty of folks online are hoping the two veterans might connect. Who’s the person in your life you’d give a plane-wide tribute to? Let us know in the comments.