A Day at Baltimore Airport
The writer and his wife live in LA and both work for Uncle Sam.


Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control. Accordingly, my flight and many others were canceled and I wound up spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was a change from earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got on the PA and said this, "Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you and we love you."

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heartfelt applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it happen.

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense

Two addenda:

1. This is not an urban legend; it's true (click here)

2. It is so in the proper forum - we've had lots of threads here on VDB

dear Counsellor,

by this reply, I don't wish to detract from the kind sentiments you expressed in your interesting post. (I actually would have prefered to post after some more standard replies had appeared, but I am not online for long) I am glad to hear about stories like this, and I find it very heartwarming that strangers would reach out to returning troops in this way and am happy to see it happen.

But I have to disagree with one thing you've said: "... [these acts of kindness] also told me why we will win this war."

I do not believe that kindness of heart or good intentions mean that we will win a war. To believe these things is to deceive onesself about the seriousness of the situation and leads to a blindness of the true cost of war.

A belief in the righteousness of a cause alone does not guarantee success. In fact, even military superiority does not guarantee that you will win a war. I think we have learned this before.
In the current situation, it is becoming increasingly clear that the obstacles faced by the US (and its military) are going to require significant re-evaluation by this administration. The admininistration's unwavering belief that success will be gained by "staying the course" and having an unquestioning American people is going to cost more lives and cause us all to see more honorable soldiers traveling home in our airports -- not fewer, which is what we'd all like to see.

Probably I missed something, but it seems that the airline was willing to ask its customers to make sacrifices, through an appeal to emotion (or guilt?), while at the same time intentionally overbooking. Wondering why the airline wasn't willing to also make a sacrifice- like giving free tickets to returning military.

The airline gets to seem like a good guy, and it wins twice- fills up a plane with revenue seats, and does not have to pay the federally mandated involuntary bumping fees. A good business move, says overly cynical I.

Ronin,

I did not read in the original post that the airline did not offer "Voluntary bump" vouchers to the passengers. This appeal merely pursuaded passengers to volunteer.

Great to read this happening. I feel the same way and have on several occasions upgraded soldiers to first class. Most recently it was at BWI (last weekend) when my flight seemed to be overflowing with service men and women coming back from Iraq.

I only wish I could have upgraded more people. The look on this young soldier's face when he was handed a new boarding pass in first was priceless. It was the least I could do.

This is NOT posted in the right forum. Please explain the direct link to mileage!?

The airlines could have upped their compensation to encourage more people to step down, making room for the military... They created the problem and expected their customers to "pay" for it.

American soldiers from Vietnam are still walking the streets, being disrespected and having the VA turn many away because of "unaccepted" illness.

Other Americans are still marching against this "war". Many in the Congress and the Senate, no longer support the efforts in this conflict. Several Presidential want-to-bes would bring home the troops and leave the situation in a mess, discarding the efforts of so many that have lost so much.

If Judge Ross believes this represents an attitude that will help us win, he may find that his observation was tainted by his being tired.

In my opinion, this is definitely not posted in the right forum. This story has nothing to do with miles or points or The Latest Frequent Flyer Program Buzz...

And right now it's turning into a political debate. I have a feeling I'm going to get a tremendous amount of heat over this, but I'm going to move it over to Travel Buzz!

And lets leave the politics out of it.

Flipside

Hear, hear!! They deliberately created a situation that put someone else on the spot, rather than making any sacrifice themselves. A better response would have been to substitute a bigger aircraft. Seems like a modest and reasonable thing to ask, considering all the money airlines have received from taxpayers.

The episode reminds me of companies that hit customers up for donations at the checkout and then hand the big check to Jerry (or whomever) as if they were doing the giving. Or eBay's disastrous "Auction for America" that made sellers pick up postage costs and conveniently excluded a competing payment service they were trying to squeeze (but ended up later buying).

And since we're on the topic of sacrifices, it would be useful to ask those on the political right what sacrifices THEY themselves are currently making for the war on terrorism. I sure don't see many.

Give up the gas guzzler, press for tougher fuel standards or reduce fuel consumption in any way? Nope - try to drill our way out and make nice with Saudi Arabia (home of 15 of the 19 hijackers and lots of their financial support).

Forgo tax cuts? Nope..the $87 billion+ goes on top of $400 billion deficits and will be paid by children and grandchildren, not you. Seems like we're leaving it to the military and reservists to make the sacrifices.

Oh, but we'll wave flags, call the Dixie Chicks traitors and take off our shoes going through the metal detector. It IS the least we can do.



[This message has been edited by RustyC (edited 11-08-2003).]

I just wonder why our government feels it's ok to leave people @ BWI and let them figure out their way to wherever they may actually live.

It's not like they get much advance notice to buy discount tix, and many, no doubt, live in small towns with few cheap seats...

"If ya don't ask, ya don't git"

I hear a lot of anecdotes about airlines asking people to switch flights, sometimes with a phone call. By asking, the airlines get a few "yes's". By not asking the airlines get no "yes's". At least this time people feeling patriotic could render a favor.

I don't think the airlines created the problem except by not rolling out another plane or a larger plane which they might not have had on hand. In this case, several flights were cancelled earlier that day.

By forcibly booking the soldiers on the flights the airline gave some of them some chance of getting home sooner. By not forcibly booking the soldiers on the flights the airline would have given none of the soldiers any chance of getting home sooner.

It remains an open question what would have happened if some of the civilian passengers came right out and asked, "Would you give me a $200. voucher".

Also, what would have happened if the gate agent, instead of asking, announced (anyway whether or not truthful), "We are requisitioning x number of seats for military use" and methodially proceeded to unseat civilians per existing rule that does not require compensation. Is this an ace up their sleeve the airlines got?

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

>>> Wondering why the airline wasn't willing to also make a sacrifice...

Did the airlines sell tickets to the soldiers at the deepest discounts regardless of advance purchase circumstances and capacity controls? I did hear in the news that there was a lot of confusion by the government in announcing whether and when the soldiers could begin their leave.

Did the airlines forcibly book the "volunteering" civilians on their very next flights and actually ask for volunteers the normal way then?

[This message has been edited by AllanJ (edited 11-08-2003).]

What happens if a soldier is unable to get back on duty after leave, for want of an airline seat?



[This message has been edited by AllanJ (edited 11-08-2003).]

Rusty has a good point but it can not be restriced to just the political right. If the war against terrorism is to have any chance of winning at all, both the Left and the Right have to give up many of their cherished beliefs.

Terrorism may be motivated by many factors, but it is being fueled almost exclusively by oil money.

Yes, the Right will have to accept what the Left has been saying for a long time: Energy consumption must be reduced and alternative sources of energy (solar, hydro, etc.) must be developed.

This, however, will not be enough -- especially in the short term. Here is where the Left is going to have to give in. Alaskan oil reserves need to be fully exploited. Environmental standards are going to have to be lowered to allow more use of coal. Nuclear reactors have to be built once again.

One side's solutions are not enough. Both will have to be employed. Only then can America become so unreliant upon Mideastern oil that it can afford not to subsidize international terrorism.

It is nice to see people put others' interests ahead of their own once in a while. Thanks for the post.

If I had my way, and millions of others like me, there would be not need for troops to be returning home from a war we savagely started. Americans are not heros, we are invaders and occupiers. Just because the soldiers are American, does that mean we have to support them? Aren't they killing innocent people over in Iraq? Let George Bush send his two daughters over there to fight like other's their age and then I might have a different take on all this. Until that happens, I hope Iraq kicks our butts !!!!!! American is a shameful bully that deserves to get whopped.

So you, an American, are advocating the needless deaths of American military personnel? I think you're a little out of the mainstream on that, and I see this thread rapidly heading for OMNI.

How mercenary of United. Trying a faux appeal to patriotism in order to get out of paying appropriate compensation to passengers it bumped. Obviously, it worked. But, the bottom line is that if it really wanted to get all of the soldiers on the plane together, United could have gotten enough bump volunteers by offering additional compensation.

United did not want to pay the compensation, so instead told a half-truth to get people to give up their overbooked seats for less than market value "to support the troops." Shameful.