[Rhodes22-list] Marine Tribute - Could be Political

[Brad Haslett]

Here's an old article on "dry runs" and "probing" that I stumbled across
today embedded in a site dedicated to aviation security. This sort of
activity happens frequently but gets little press because it might actually
require an admission that there still is a war on terrorism taking place.
Note that the article fails to mention the passengers ethnic origin or the
exact nature of his behaviour (PC BS). I may have even commented on it at
the time on the list (don't remember) but the last paragraph deserves
re-reading.  You gotta love Marines (and Marine wives).

Brad

Graying duo keep passenger in check

By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff  |  June 5, 2007

Shortly before landing, Bob Hayden and a flight attendant had agreed on a
signal: When she waved the plastic handcuffs, he would discreetly leave his
seat and restrain an unruly passenger who had frightened some of the 150
people on board a Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with erratic
behavior.

Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired
gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former
US Marine.

"I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had
averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all
he said was, 'Retired captain. USMC.' I said, 'You'll do,' " Hayden
recalled. "So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the
situation."

The incident on Northwest Airlines Flight 720 ended peacefully, but not
before Hayden, a former Boston police deputy superintendent and former
Lawrence police chief, and the retired Marine had handcuffed one man and
stood guard over another until the plane touched down safely at Logan
International Airport around 7:50 p.m.

State Police troopers escorted two men off the flight. Trooper Thomas
Murphy, a State Police spokesman, said one of the men was transported to
Massachusetts General Hospital for "an unspecified medical issue, possibly
mental health."

He said State Police detectives will investigate whether the man's behavior
should be treated as a medical or criminal matter. A second man escorted off
the plane identified himself as the unruly passenger's brother. Murphy said
police would not release the names of the men, who Hayden said appeared to
be in their 30s or 40s.

Dean Breest, a spokesman for Northwest, confirmed that "there was an
incident that required State Police to come on board the aircraft" but
declined further comment.

Hayden said the unruly man's behavior upset some passengers. One told Hayden
the man had said, "Your lives are going to change today forever," as he
shouted and refused to take his seat before takeoff and at various times
during the nearly three-hour flight. He said that at one point the man lay
on his back and was screaming, moaning, and thrashing on the floor.

"Some people were crying," Hayden said. "I thought it might be a diversion.
I kept scanning the back of the plane to see if anyone was going to rush
forward. The flight attendants did a great job, literally surrounding the
two guys who were making all the noise. I told one of the flight attendants
I was a retired police officer and would be willing to assist, so we agreed
on a signal."

When the captain announced preparations for landing, the man jumped up
shouting, the flight attendant held up the handcuffs, and Hayden and the
Marine came bounding down the aisle. Hayden said he and the retired Marine,
whose name he never got, received an ovation from fellow passengers, and
"some free air miles."

Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less
impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she
barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was
reading.

"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could
just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been
stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I
figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be
the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the
book would end."