Soldier's KIA Family by 1st Class Passengers

mscard88

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The father of an Army soldier killed in Afghanistan says he and his family were booed as they flew to meet his son’s body coming home.

Sgt. John Perry, 30, was killed in a suicide attack at Bagram Airfield on Saturday, along with Pfc. Tyler Iubelt and two American contractorsStewart Perry told KOVR-TV his son stopped the suicide bomber short of his target and may have saved hundreds of lives.

Perry told the Army Times the booing took place on an American Airlines flight that landed in Phoenix Monday. Perry and his family were flying from Sacramento to Dover Air Force Base.

The captain told everyone to remain seated to let the Perry family leave first to make their connection.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/califor...bringing-home-soldier-killed-afghanistan-dad/
 
I'm not sure how anyone in their right mind could think the booing was appropriate...

The only thing that I can think of was that impatient passengers didn't listen to or comprehend the reason the captain gave.

And this is a proactive warning not to turn this thread into a rantfest. Let's be respectful.
 
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I was reading on some FB military page that the integrity of this article and situation altogether was being questioned.

Who knows. Haven't looked into it at all myself.
 
I agree. Not sure the people booing actually knew what the delay was for. Couldn't imagine passengers showing that kind of disrespect for a Gold Star family.
 
I'm not sure how anyone in their right mind could think the booing was appropriate...

The only thing that I can think of was that impatient passengers didn't listen to or comprehend the reason the captain gave.

And this is a proactive warning not to turn this thread into a rantfest. Let's be respectful.

A lot of people in this country not in their right mind.
 
If I were told my flight was being delayed for a "gold star family", I may have booed too. What the hell is a "gold star family"? Why are they more important than my family? Without further explanation, it was a "booable" situation.
 
I think the spin is that this is anti-soldier sentiment but there are few Americans who would ever boo a grieving family. We all know that there is something missing in this story.

I arrived home on an international flight that was a bit late once. The airline was holding up the departure of a connecting flight and trying to coordinate the connection, but it was uncertain if they were going to pull it off and passengers on my flight towards the rear of the plane were flipping out. As we taxied to the gate we were instructed to remain seated until all the people who needed to make the connecting flight were off first, especially the people in the back. I had an aisle seat so I forced my row to cooperate even as the non-native English speakers beside me got shifty and started angrily asking me why I wouldn't let them up. I did my best to explain the situation and point out the people making their way from the back of the plane but I don't think I was ever understood.

People don't listen the announcements, they don't understand, and they're very self-centric the moment the wheels touch the tarmac.
 
How many younger Americans don't even know where Dover AFB is or that this sort of thing usually takes place there?

The politicians banned cameras even showing draped coffins there, long enough ago, one might wonder...

Wouldn't want the proles knowing just how many are getting killed. Caused problems for previous generation's politicians...
 
One time we were waiting in line for a shuttle to a local park for a 4th of July celebration. The shuttle was supposed to start at 4. We stood in line from 4-5 watching one bus parked in the lot near us. We and the other few hundred people in line thought it wasn't related and that the buses would be showing up any time.

At 5pm the ONE bus we watched for the last hour moved to the front of the line and started picking up passengers like 30 at a time. Then another 20 minute round trip before it picked up more people. After trip number 4 or 5, we're at the front of the line when the bus stops way far back and starts picking up people from the middle of the line.

So me being the impatient jackass that I am (it has only been 2.5-ish hours at this point) surrounded by other angry people yelled "how about starting at the front of the line?!" To which someone yelled back "it is picking up a wheelchair!" To which I replied "oh!"

But it could certainly be construed by people who didn't know better or the people in the back of the line that some ******* in front hates people in wheelchairs.
 
This picture was part of a story that won a Pulitzer. I doubt there was any booing on this flight:


second-lt-james-cathey_s-body-arrived-at-the-reno-airport-in-20051.jpg
 
I would imagine the people who would boo this family are the same new who would protest the funeral. Plenty of that going on. :(
 
I would imagine the people who would boo this family are the same new who would protest the funeral. Plenty of that going on. :(
I disagree.

I don't believe that the people that booed this family were booing because of them transporting the remains of a soldier.

I believe they were booing because their plane was being delayed for someone who, for unknown reasons, has been labeled as more important than the other passengers. I have been on planes that were already late and the Captain came on to apologize and explain that we are waiting for one more family to board. My thought was that they NEVER held a plane up for me to board, so what makes this family so special. Had they explained it, I would have given up my seat to them if necessary.
 
Well, I feel better thinking the passengers didn't know. No decent person would knowingly disrespect a fallen soldier. And anyone with anti military sentiments should know to keep their mouth shut in this situation.
 
The obvious solution? Stop making those worthless announcements.

I've never been on a commercial flight without a connection. I may be connecting to a Rental Car, a Taxi, an Uber driver, or sometimes another flight.

I never wait for anyone behind me to deplane. I never will. I don't boo the announcements. I help those in a hurry by collecting up my stuff and deplaning as quickly as possible.

My OPINION is that those announcements are usually only made to lull the occasional traveler into believing something is being done.
 
About ten years ago my wife and I were flying from New Orleans to billings Montana with a connection in Denver, we were late leaving from nawlins because of the Vice President leaving or landing in nawlins. We landed in Denver at the same time we should be leaving Denver for billings. Once at the gate the Capt. Made an announcement to let those of us heading to billings get off first. Here is where it gets a bit strange. Not a single other passenger stood up! The ten or so of us got up, grabbed our things and headed towards the jetway. The other passengers even gave us a good luck clap. At the gate the airline had a couple golf carts waiting for us where we were sped to our connecting flight.
I think the next flight to billings was in three days at that airline. They did a fantastic job of getting us to where we needed to go.
That was one experience I will never forget. Sometimes your faith in humanity is restored.
 
I don't know what happened on this flight but agree, something is missing from the story. My experience related to a fallen soldier and/or their family is most cooperate if the PA is a clear explanation of what is occurring. I have never had any problems with passengers when I had this situation on one of my flights. I will say my experience with a few, not all of course, 1st class passengers is an entitled attitude, some even to other 1st class passengers. These folks are a real PIA. I've been retired for 3 1/2 years now so I don't know what's going on now, but I suspect there are people who don't know that we have warriors still being killed over there. I have always wondered why people's manners cease to exist when they get to the airport.
 
My OPINION is that those announcements are usually only made to lull the occasional traveler into believing something is being done.

If you're referring to a fallen warrior on the flight, sometimes a glance out the window will reveal to you the coffin being unloaded from the cargo bin and the military escort waiting. I know Delta has a ground team comprised of rampers who give the fallen extra care, something to see. Might give you a new perspective.
 
I've been retired for 3 1/2 years now so I don't know what's going on now, but I suspect there are people who don't know that we have warriors still being killed over there. I have always wondered why people's manners cease to exist when they get to the airport.

Nothing has changed. I was fortunate enough to be in first class from LAX-JFK a couple weeks back, on one of our specially equipped Airbus' with the first class cubicles. The guy in the cube (whatever the hell you call it) across the aisle from me starts playing music from his phone without any headphones. And he's playing it pretty friggin' loud. Now I'm in uniform, so I just stick some earbuds in and try to ignore it, but fortunately the purser comes over and tells him politely to put some headphones on. This guy gets all uppity about it, talking about all the money he paid for the ticket, and that he should get what he wants, blah blah blah. The guy eventually complied and put some headphones on, but in what effing world is this kind of thing acceptable?

When did we start doing our own thing without *any* regard to the people around us? And as much as I'd love to blame this crap on millennials, this dude was middle aged.
 
Sorry @mscard88. No change in perspective.

In your Delta example, the connecting flight would likely be held if such a ramp crew was working it, so there would be no need to expedite the family to the detriment of the rest of the passengers.

Don't get me wrong. I don't boo the announcements, I simply ignore them and deplane quickly.
 
So if that fallen warrior's parents were sitting next to you wouldn't get up and allow them to exit first? You'd just grab your stuff and deplane ahead of them? Is this what you're saying?
 
So if that fallen warrior's parents were sitting next to you wouldn't get up and allow them to exit first? You'd just grab your stuff and deplane ahead of them? Is this what you're saying?

That is exactly what I'm saying.

You are adding the heart-string tugging part of the "Family" to justify the "Please allow _____ to exit first".

I've heard it for the family trying to get to Disney, the "Many passengers need to get to the LHR connections", blah blah blah. All the same and worthless.

Now, if there's a medical emergency and the first responders come though the first open door I'll stay seated. But if we're all leaving anyway the best service I can provide is to quickly deplane.
 
No feelings involved. Nor should any be involved. Feelings are great at church and charity affairs.

Traveling on a commercial airline is part of the job. You're job was to pilot the plane. My job is to be the super-elite business traveler.

Some day when they say "we stuck Ravioli in a center seat in row 40, could you all stay seated while he deplanes?" I'll expect and accept the same disregard.
 
I for one, can't bear the indignity of waiting 1 extra minute to exit the plane so I can run to another gate to sit for another hour or hover around the baggage carousel for the next 15 minutes.

I know people are antsy after spending several hours in the cramped little seat in the metal tube ship and I'm guilty of that too but come on, it's like a minute or two of your life. It's not like anyone gets a prize for getting off first.
 
Maybe they were booing the fact that their son had been lost. Maybe the family were wearing shirts with the wrong political candidate on them.

Whatever the case may be, there is something missing here and wouldn't surprise me in the least if the whole story is all just a bunch of bs hearsay.
 
My job is to be the super-elite business traveler.
"super-elite business traveler" ...now that's the funniest thing I've read all day.

I could have sworn that we were humans first, employees second.
 
Has anyone posted video of this incident yet? I will call bs on this unlikely story until video is presented. If that video is from cnn or msnbc or cbs or nbc or abc then forget it, I want to see the unedited version.
 
"super-elite business traveler" ...now that's the funniest thing I've read all day.

I could have sworn that we were humans first, employees second.

When you travel for a living you get into a "zone". I don't think he was espousing any particular love for employer or the job, necessarily, he was talking about putting on the mental uniform needed to get on and off commercial airlines every few days and blow right by those who can't figure out "the system".

My favorite chuckle when I was continually in that "mode" was the DIA trains. It was a simple thing, but you could tell the regular travelers -- we knew the doors you get on the train from are the opposite doors that open at baggage claim.

People who don't, get on and turn around and face the door they got in from, like an elevator. Primacy. Those of us who travelled would face the other doors and smile at the majority who were looking at us, moving toward being as close to that side as possible.

If it was really crowded and I felt particularly nice and someone looked uncomfortable that I was "in their face", I'd quietly point out that the door behind them was what would open at baggage claim. They, and six other people would turn around. LOL. Oh! That's why that guy is staring at us! :)

The train would pull in and you'd keep smiling and nod at the door opening behind the people staring at you while they wondered why the door behind you wasn't opening. Hehehe.

Try it sometime if you're ever at DEN. It's fun.

Another pro tip: Get in the end train cars. The escalators are at both ends of the train. Everyone who doesn't travel much, heads for the middle of the train and has to wait the longest to get to the escalator.

If you happen to get a Concourse A airline/flight, walk across the bridge. It's faster than the trains by a mile. Especially if you know where you parked or are catching a cab/van.

So fun figuring out the patterns. Then just use them. Other stuff is knowing where to park your car, etc.

I got to where I could be off the plane and out of DIA in 20 minutes flat while vacationers were probably still finishing up gathering their stuff and their offspring. Go through enough airports enough times and you'd get really good at all of them.

So I get what he's saying. The cattle are kinda slow compared with the folks who do it every three or four days for a few years running. You're not in any way annoyed at them, they're mostly just good for a chuckle after you see the repetitive patterns.

Want to watch non-regular travelers twitch but not say anything? If you're in the middle of the plane and in an aisle seat, don't bother standing up as soon as the seat belt sign dings off. Just sit there knowing nobody's going anywhere for a while in that row.

Get up when the deplaning snake reaches about seven rows in front of you, reach up and deftly snag your carry on that's built for this crap, not some goofy thing that'll get stuck and you have to take two minutes untangling out of the bin.

Now the advanced nice guy move... time it so you've got just enough time to ask the other two folks in your row where their carry ons are, and if they're in reach, snatch them perfectly between the people standing in the aisle's heads and plop them on your seat at the exact moment you walk into the aisle, so they can walk out right behind you with no delaying of the snake dance at all.

They'll thank you in the jetway. "No problem, do this every week, sometimes twice a week."

My rule in airports when I travelled that much for business was "Never stop moving until you're in the rental car or in your own car headed home".

Only time that didn't work was if some Hertz place didn't have the Gold car ready to go and that was annoying. Also hated airports with off airport rental car pickup and a bus ride. Couldn't be avoided but it sure wasted my time.

There's also tips on which flights to book to avoid it being mostly tourists. Sometimes it couldn't be avoided, and those flights always take much much longer to load and unload. There was more to it than this, but the general rule was "avoid Friday night and weekends". I tried like hell to book customer trips on Tue-Thu and would work all weekend at their site if it was a big job, rather than deal with weekend warriors at the airports.

So "super elite business traveller" was likely just a way to say, "Been here, done this, you're slow, going to blow past you and get out of here, no offense... got stuff to do and haven't been home in a month."

So glad I don't do that crap anymore.
 
So "super elite business traveller" was likely just a way to say, "Been here, done this, you're slow, going to blow past you and get out of here, no offense... got stuff to do and haven't been home in a month.".
Sounded to me more like "no offense...as a super-elitist business traveler I believe we are all just sheeple, and the fact that your son or daughter died while in my employ has no effect on how I treat you."
 
When you travel for a living you get into a "zone".

So "super elite business traveller" was likely just a way to say, "Been here, done this, you're slow, going to blow past you and get out of here, no offense... got stuff to do and haven't been home in a month."

So glad I don't do that crap anymore.

Meh. Sounds to me like a weak rationalization to be a dick in public. Same argument people make when they treat you as a customer with contempt and annoyance in a retail or services environment, or perhaps say drop a toolbox on my wing and left me airplaneless going on months now and through the holidays, now facing six 6-hour one way trips in a car with a toddler. The whole "Hey, 5 dollars doesn't buy my undivided attention, so I do what I do, sorry I'm not sorry about your airplane nothing personal"

Don't like your job circumstances? Address it with the employer. Don't take it out on bystanders. Aka don't be a dick.
 
If I were told my flight was being delayed for a "gold star family", I may have booed too. What the hell is a "gold star family"? Why are they more important than my family? Without further explanation, it was a "booable" situation.
No feelings involved. Nor should any be involved. Feelings are great at church and charity affairs.

Traveling on a commercial airline is part of the job. You're job was to pilot the plane. My job is to be the super-elite business traveler.

Some day when they say "we stuck Ravioli in a center seat in row 40, could you all stay seated while he deplanes?" I'll expect and accept the same disregard.

You apparently have not served your country in the military. You seem oblivious to the fact that other families have made real sacrifices in order for you to be a super-elite business traveler. Moving every two years or so is a form of sacrifice that pales in comparison to losing a loved one, but it is sacrifice (especially for school-age kids) none the less. Being on call 24 hours a day, no matter what is going on in your life, is a form of sacrifice. Giving up some Constitutional rights and submitting to the Uniform Code of Military Justice is a form of sacrifice. Getting paid less than your civilian peers is a form of sacrifice. There are so many ways in which civilians are blind to what military life entails.

Bob Gardner
 
My fathers generation were spit on and called baby killers when they returned from war. I have never had to experience someone being disrespectful towards a service member in my life. I think that kind of behavior is on a short list of things that could get me angry enough to be felonious.
 
You apparently have not served your country in the military. You seem oblivious to the fact that other families have made real sacrifices in order for you to be a super-elite business traveler.
Bob Gardner
Sorry Bob, but you are wrong. My point was that the people that booed most likely had no idea of the families situation. They were booing the fact that the plane was being delayed. The way the airlines treat the cattle these days breeds contempt and the people probably felt those causing the delay were friends of the pilot, or some rich guy or some celebrity that was getting better treatment than those people doing the booing would ever have gotten.

If they knew the situation and they still booed, then I would condemn them as you are condemning me.

On the few times when I travel commercial any more it seems every other phrase I think is "oh jeez, not this again". When I travel commercial, they constantly put me in a booable mood, and delaying my flight for no good reason (or for a good reason, but I don't know what it is) is going to elicit a boo out of me, or worse.

I honestly meant no disrespect to the aggrieved family, and would have gladly given up my seat to them if asked; If I knew the situation.
 
My daughter is safe at college, and my high school son is alive and kicking in his bedroom as I type. If waiting an extra minute to show a little friggin gratitude is too much to ask, I don't know what to say. I wouldn't stick either one of them in a coffin so that I can get off a plane first.
 
Meh. Sounds to me like a weak rationalization to be a dick in public. Same argument people make when they treat you as a customer with contempt and annoyance in a retail or services environment, or perhaps say drop a toolbox on my wing and left me airplaneless going on months now and through the holidays, now facing six 6-hour one way trips in a car with a toddler. The whole "Hey, 5 dollars doesn't buy my undivided attention, so I do what I do, sorry I'm not sorry about your airplane nothing personal"

Don't like your job circumstances? Address it with the employer. Don't take it out on bystanders. Aka don't be a dick.

Nope no dickishness at all. Just speed. Most folks wouldn't know a frequent traveler just boogied on out of the area, even if you hit them with a large stick -- every time one went by at a fast walking speed. They're mostly oblivious. If they saw Rolivi deplaning they'd not give a second thought to it, he'd be gone.

And definitely not the sort of jerk who'd drop a toolbox on an airplane. Ha. That does suck man.

Ask any of the pro flight crew here if they know how to boogie without a) being any sort of dick, b) being noticed much if at all, and c) across the airport in about 1/3 of the usual time of the "Standard American Family and 2.5 Children" dorking about and gawking at every sign in the airport on their way to the Disney TFR Land.

Whoosh. Gone. Someone might say, "Hey where did that dude go that we were talking to?"

You just get fast at it. My biggest slowdown was when I had to check $30,000 worth of test equipment instead of ship to the site ahead of time. Hated that. Haaaaaaaaated that.

Only time it came in handy was in SLC when some rental car counter moron kept insisting I wasn't old enough to rent a car.

My former submarine XO boss yelled something at her along the lines of (after he told her the company was self-insured and I was most definitely on their approved renter list), "Does he have a couple of cases sitting next to him? Okay, the equipment in those cases costs three times more than the rental car and we trust that he'll bring those back, so would you just hand him the keys to the car already?"

He wasn't exactly what you'd call, a patient man, when people weren't doing their jobs correctly. Haha.

I actually loved that job, back then. I said I was glad I don't do it today... back then I could make sure my belt buckle wasn't magnetic and be to the gate and boarding in minutes from walking in the airport door. Bust out at the far end, hit the customer site, see if they were a "fast" or "slow" customer (Slow customers needed training on what a phone was. Haha.) Hop the flight home, and be done with it. (Nothing was ever completely full except the aforementioned weekend warrior days...)

Next flight was already booked by the travel agency and in my email inbox before I got home if they were back to back. If I actually made it to my desk at the office there would be a pile of printed airline tickets on it in those fancy slipcovers.

I got paid a LOT to do that crap back then, for the day and the economy. It was good. I wasn't rude or running into people, but I wasn't slowing down in airports I knew well, ever.

Trips got more annoying as I moved into Product Support. I got all the nasty stuff nobody thought would work. Took many more days on-site and I finally said enough was enough when the fourth company to buy us out messed up the reimbursement system so bad, I was three or four months behind on getting reimbursement checks for the trips.

Decided I'd apply to go manage the NOC for a while instead of wondering if they'd paid their bills on time this month. Desk job, corner office, downtown high rise, windows... vs airports. Was a good career move.

Great staff of nutty people who worked hard, and played some great pranks on everyone including me. Still in touch with most of them. Met up with one who's well into his 70s now for Mexican a couple of months ago and told War stories. He was the old telecom coot who kept a small bottle of whiskey buried in the far back corner of a desk drawer and never took it out unless a "company saving" type of event happened along with the standard craziness of a day like that.

He'd grab his usual cup of coffee after it all died down, and he'd pour a shot into the coffee, and anyone else who happened to have coffee nearby was welcome and then it went back in the back of the drawer for another year or so. One of a few old Bell Labs and Bell System guys who had seen it all.

Nothing phased that guy. Best night tech one could ask to manage. He'd raise a big bushy grey eyebrow at fire alarms, blackouts, fiber cuts, it didn't matter... then he'd say in his NY accent... "Guess we better see what needs to be fixed."

Good times. Insane hours and travel replaced with just insane hours and no travel.

I had it easy, too. We had not one, but two field engineers gone so long to foreign countries they both ended up divorced and brought home new wives. LOL. Worked out well for one of them and not so well for the other.

I remember joking with the one that brought home the tall blonde Swede from his time in Amsterdam that I could bring back a sweaty, hyper, balding, middle aged, GTE engineer from a basement where they kept him in Chantilly, VA... working the FAA telecom contracts... if he wanted to trade.

He didn't take me up on the offer. Never could figure out why. ;)

Business Travel can be as fun as you make it, but none of us dawdled around airports. Seen one, you've seen them all. Although I do know what the guy who pointed out that each one has something interesting stashed away somewhere is saying. Once in a while you just got stuck and you might as well go wandering and sightseeing around the place.
 
I am currently deployed and both of these Soldiers were in my unit. It was a great loss and Soldiers are still being lost due to war. I talked to SSG Perry several days before the incident. I cannot comment much on the situation, but I would have no issue sitting in my seat several more minutes so a Gold Star family could either board or de-plane even if I was inconvenienced. I'm sure the announcement was not heard by all, but the gesture by the airline I agree with. Two minutes of waiting is a small sacrifice to make for this family who is currently grieving. I'm sure it's not the whole story, but is a small price to pay.
 
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