Patriots Country

'Patriot Way': Team Plane Flew Soldiers Home for Memorial Day

New England owner Robert Kraft loaned one of the team's private planes to fly U.S. military home from Germany for the holiday.

Richie Whitt

The 'Patriot Way' scored a special "touchdown" this Memorial Day.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft loaned one of the team's two airplanes - the "AirKrafts" - to fly U.S. soldiers from Germany to be home on American soil for the military holiday.

With a 2022 military budget of $782 billion, you'd think the U.S. could make time - and spend its own dime - affording the luxury for service personnel overseas, but that's another story for another time. Kraft, as he did in 2018 by flying Parkland High School students and families to Washington, D.C. for the "March for Our Lives" rally in the wake of the shooting - comes to the rescue again with an, um, Patriotic act of kindness.

Excuse our German-to-English translation, but the tweet loosely says:

"When we don't need our plane, it's used for charter flights or civilian transportation of military personnel."

And ...

"Our Pats plane was used last week to fly US soldiers home for the memorial."

In 2017, the Patriots purchased a pair of Boeing 767-300ERs that since have become known as the “AirKrafts.” New England uses the planes — one is the primary jet; the other is a backup — primarily for team travel but also for humanitarian efforts, including the pickup and delivery of N95 masks early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

And, in this case, to lighten the load and lift the spirits of U.S. military personnel on their special holiday.

Bottom line: There's more to the Patriots than football. Much more.

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Richie Whitt
RICHIE WHITT

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