AA is "my" airline. I am intensely loyal to this company. Having said that -

1) Captain of a USA (FAA) commercial airliner has absolute, and final - unquestionable - authority to refuse passage to anyone. No reason needed, to make this happen.

2) Captain "should" have sound judgement, since lives depend on that judgement.

3) Captain on this AA flight exhibited, and exercised, poor judgement IMHO.

4) Captain should be fired for judgement this bad!

5) I am embarassed over the press release put out by AA. It is simply amazing that adult humans with responsible positions in large corporations, can issue such tripe into the public space.

The Secret Service Agent in this case stands ready, as do ALL emergency service personnel, to die as part of his job. For us, and this includes that AA Captain. And Don Carty doesn't even have the good manners to apologize in public for the actions of one of his employees. Amazing times we live in. Our standards for common decency have certainly fallen over the past few decades.

It is going to be hard now for me to wear my AA "Proud to Fly" button on my Jan-2002 trips. I will do it, but it will be hard after this piece of idiocy.

ps - my nephew is a LEO, and his department says he is to "carry" his gun "at all times". Department regs also tell him he is "on duty" at all times. Seems I remember the exact same regs applied to me in my military job, even when I was in a secure facility. No, I wasn't in Military LE.

dAAvid -