The New York Times this morning recounts the tale of seven Navy recruits stranded at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, courtesy American Airlines' copious cancellations this week. Among their lot: 25-year-old Karin Peyregne, a mother of two from Mobile trying to get to the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois, who left home with only $10 in her pocket. Which would have been OK, except Peyregne and her comrades have been stuck here since Tuesday without so much as a change of clothes; they were supposed to be on an 8 a.m. to Chicago today, but good luck with all that.
So how have they managed since they took up residence at DFW? Says the paper: "Her group has lived off U.S.O.-supplied food and drinks, available to military in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport since Tuesday. They also were given cash from another organization that helps soldiers, and have used meal vouchers from American." Good news, though: She says the best meal the recruits have eaten since being stuck in airline purgatory was at Chili's. --Robert Wilonsky