Passengers aboard plane salute fallen 'hero'

Boston Globe ^ | 9/26/2005 | Adrienne Samuels

[cwiz24]

When Delta Flight 1880 landed late Saturday at Logan International Airport, the pilot went on the intercom to make a request of the passengers preparing to grab their carry-on bags: Sit for a moment and honor a fallen soldier.

''The pilot said, 'We have a hero on this flight and sadly, he isn't with us, but his mother is escorting his remains,' " said Barbara Bell, sister of Sergeant Pierre A. Raymond, 28, an Army reservist from Lawrence who died Tuesday in Germany after being wounded in Iraq.

The normal bustle of an emptying airplane immediately ceased, she said.

''He went on to say that 'a sergeant from the Army is escorting them as well', and then [the pilot] thanked him for doing what he did and for keeping us safe and free."

[cgk]

Mine too. It's so hard to see right now all I can add is "bump."

RIP Soldier and God Bless.

[pageonetoo]

Thanks for the warming thoughts for this morning. Fallen Hero bump...

[blu]

I got a reply to my email. The writer said she doesn't write the headlines, and the word was in quotation marks because it was part of a quote (from the mom and the pilot, as I suspected). She's very nice, and is concerned that only the headline was excerpted. I explained, briefly, the rules here at FR about excerpting. She didn't understand how anyone could be offended.

In my first email, I apologized in advance for any snarky emails she may get from us. [Putting on teacher's INSIDE voice here] So, class, the moral of the story is: When you see something that dings your pi**-off meter, READ THE WHOLE STORY FIRST. Sometimes we go off half-cocked. Having done that more times than I care to admit, I've learned my lesson.

Your homework is to show me where to find a list of fatalities, by state, for the war. I've a little project in mind.

Class dismissed...be careful out there! And remember, RTFS!

[A.A. Cunningham]

You should be able to find what you are looking for here:

http://icasualties.org/oif/

[wiley]

I was at Cincinnati Airport a month ago and another Delta plane landed with a fallen Marine. It took an hour for the whole entourage to show up. It included the funeral vehicles, a Marine honor guard, a few State Police escorts and some Sheriffs. What was cool was that the Delta crew, pilots and flight attendants, as well as ground personnel all waited for the whole entrourage to show up and stood at attention during the Honor Guard ceremony.

When it came time to salute, the Delta Pilots saluted.
I was pretty impressed.

Delta also makes a point of announcing returning veterans.

BTW, The cops stood with their hands behind their backs, however, as I'm sure they were told to.

[blu]

Thank you, A.A. I found what I needed.

[rudy45]

I attended, with my daughter, my nephew's graduation from MCRD Parris Island. Of course, his family (i.e. my brother in law, his wife and their daughter/my niece) attended also. We all flew back afterwards, getting on a US Airways commuter plane from Savannah. I made a point of telling the pilot about my nephew, and sure enough he announced it.