I woould say I won´t ever fly Delta, but I DON´T FLY ANYMORE DUE TO THE "GESTAPO" (aka TSA). Such a blatant hatred of the military, in my eyes. Must have been a bunch of Obama voters on the crew, cowards, all of them for not giving them their names, and shame on the Captain for hiding out and not facing the music.

Not sure if this was a "Delta" screw-up, or just that the airline is probably terrified of a despotic and unpredictable FAA and TSA. Probably the later.

I drive WHENEVER possible as well, #1. But Delta is based here in Atlanta, and it´s pretty much my LEAST favorite airline. I avoid them like the plague.

#1 and #3 - I totally agree with you. I´m also in Atlanta and because of the combination of Delta and the TSA, I would rather drive for 2 days than go to the airport.

How far Delta has fallen.
I remember many years ago on final approach to Hartsfield after an extended tour overseas and being in tears seeing the familiar Delta planes lined up at the gates. I regarded them as a ´symbol´ of home.

I would like to dump Delta as well over this, but I quit flying over the TSA Gestapo years ago. From the look of the TSA threads here I am not the lone ranger.
During the Klinton years I wondered why I was wasting my youth and idealism in the military, when the administration and the public clearly didn´t care. I was never able to answer my own question.
I thank this brave Marine for his service and his sacrifice, and hope he gets a better shake in the future than he got so far.

Would all you wonderful people out there excuse and forgive my language regarding this story? Dammit-to- Hell anyway. I´m incensed. God bless this hero!

My wife is a diamond Delta flyer and I am platinum. That should give you an idea of how much we travel. We need to fly to put bread on the table - it´s the nature of our working lives. ...and I am a retired vet.

I know it´s popular to hate on [inset any airline name here]. In all our miles of air travel, neither of us have encountered anything like this. Did it happen? Sure. It should be investigated and resolved in the Marine´s favor.

However, I have yet to see an aircrew member seat anyone in a wheelchair. In all the airports I frequent, that job is held by minimum wage porters, not airline employees.

I also tire of reading all the posts of those who ´refuse´ to fly because of the TSA. I doubt these posters were regular flyers before the TSA was formed. The TSA is a violation of my constitutional rights, and I am doing everything in my power to see them disbanded.

My heart goes out to this brave marine. Delta should hang their corporate heads in shame for this kind of awful treatment. How people can be so ungrateful as to treat this man so shamefully I will never know. Is Delta the ´go to´ airline for military transport in civilian areas?

I noticed that a whistleblower was recently fired by TSA for reporting bad behaviour by her fellow agents. Took a lot of guts for her to blow that whistle.

Let´s congratulate the Washington Post for the article. Nice to see some real reporting from them for a change...even if it comes from the editorial side of the paper.

I would advise that hero vet to hire the best lawyer he can find and set out to own a substantial chunk of that airline.

I fly every week. I despise the TSA, they are the American equivalent of the Nazis. I am forced to interact with true evil every week as I pass through what I call the "No Bill of Rights zone". I also fly mostly Delta as they own MSP. I can totally see this happening. The older stewardesses are mean as hell. The new FAA rules have given them even more power than before and some of them abuse it as much as possible. I too have to travel to make a living and air travel is a brutality to be endured. Congress really needs to pass a passenger bill of rights law.

I just read this article via Instapundit and I´m still seething. I flew Delta last summer and I don´t recall any ugliness over and above all my other airline experiences, but I will be trying like heck to avoid them in the future.

Doesn´t the ADA have rules about seating the disabled on planes? I may be wrong, but I thought they had to provide seats with easy access to an exit, especially wheelchairs. In all of the planes I have flown on, none had an exit way in the back. Perhaps the Marine should look into this.

I just flew Delta to Bangkok and back. Free business/first ticket from accepting a few bonus credit card offers; after my experience (and this article) I´d never buy a seat from them. In a nutshell: union mentality.
On almost every flight, I heard the attendants discussing their work rules, future travel and management. It also seemed that the passengers were an imposition, rather than the reason for them to be there.
Add that to the stale orange juice on 3 out of four segments, and let somebody else have my next seat.

What bothers me most about this is that it seems that only veterans spoke out about it.
Were there other passengers on board, and why haven´t THEY spoken out?

I haven´t flown Delta since 1969. I was in the Army, stationed at Fort Gordon in Georgia and was flying back to Augusta through Atlanta after the holidays. I was wearing my uniform. I had paid full fare for my seat because most of the military at that time were flying standby and could not be guaranteed a seat on any flight. The connecting flight was delayed in Atlanta and I went up to the ticket counter to ask the clerk if he had any idea of when we would be departing for Augusta. He took one look at my uniform, assumed I was flying standby and said, "When I have information I´ll give it to you, dum-dum. You can wait with the rest of the standby passengers." I took his name from the name tag on his uniform and wrote a complaint letter about my treatment to Delta´s customer service department. They of course completely ignored the letter. So I wrote one to the President of Delta and he also ignored the letter. I haven´t flown Delta since then to this day. I fly hundreds of thousands of miles every year and frequently take my wife and at least some of my seven children. I don´t care if Delta is the cheapest or most convenient. I will make extra stops and pay extra rather than fly direct on Delta.

Disgraceful. Airlines will try to accommodate obese passengers because they´re afraid of being sued. But they treat a wounded warrior like this?!

This is really hard to believe.

I fly Delta nearly every week and while I have my gripes, I´ve never seen Delta treat our military service folks poorly; rather quite the opposite allowing them to board early, or upgrade them into 1st class.

Delta gets a lot of things wrong, but I cannot believe this. And to compare the TSA with Delta is ludicrous. One is a Federal Eff-up and the other is private company with incentives to do better.

There is no excuse for the lack of service to any customer regardless of who the provider.To witness such behavior and unable to correct or assist is unacceptable.

If I had been on the flight and saw this happening, I would comment in behalf of the individual being so treated. The comment might be ignored, but I´d find another way
to fly from A to B. As we all know, money
is power.

The flight attendants involved lack any kind of common sense or empathy. They should be, at a minimum, suspended and reprimanded by the airline. The captain who "vanished" is a coward. Delta should make this right by offering to fly this hero anywhere he wants to go for free for life.

While I agree with poster #8, those who don´t fly regularly shouldn´t say, "I´ll not fly" I will not even go to airport anymore. My lifestyle doesn´t include flying for business, and I´ve never been much for flying vacations, especially since my husband died. I haven´t been on a plane since 2000.

In 2006, I broke my ankle. The cast had been removed and I was wearing a "boot" with a foam liner and a plastic frame to protect my joint. I had to pick up my 14 year old grandson who was traveling alone. When I was in line to the TSA inspection point, I started hearing PA announcements for "Tyler´s grandma, please come to gate #3, he is waiting."

When I went through the metal detector, it beeped and they pulled my aside to wand the boot. They "detected a chemical" so I was detained. They gave me the third degree about where I lived and where I worked and why I was there. I kept saying..."hear the announcement, that´s me, all I want is to get my grandson and leave."

They had photocopied my driver´s license, they didn´t like my "attitude" and were leading me to another office when Tyler spotted me across the aisle and called out. He came over and I said, "I no longer need to enter the airport, we are leaving!" and we walked back through the TSA area and went around to baggage pick up.

I won´t go back. If I can´t drive, or ride the train or bus, I just don´t need to take a trip.

Bull Sh*t

I have flown Delta many times but try to aviod them as much as I can because of the p*ss poor attitude of the flight crews they are almost always rude and nasty.

The excuse offered by the company is nonsense, just an attempt to to do PR work and hope it will blow over.

From now on if I can´t get to where I need to on a good airlines I will cancell the trip if I have to fly on Delta.

I will not get on a United plane. Now I will also not get on a Delta plane. I do however love Southwest!

This needs to hurt Delta in the wallet and the cowardly Captain should be fired. With authority { his } goes responsibility { his }. Among all veterans only a small fraction are COMBAT veterans. Of those only a very few are wounded, and of the wounded only a small fraction lose limbs. Men like Cpl. Brown are as rare as woodpecker lips. Rude airline workers and government employees in general are however way too common. Amputee combat veterans should fly first class always, possibly for free. The airline knows all about them when they check in and should seat these very special people like the hero´ they are.

I´m sure Dante would have created a special place in Hell for the ´nice´ people who treated this poor man so shabbily. I´m beginning to be ashamed of America.

According to How to site, we can email the CEO of Delta Richard.Anderson@delta.com

A public apology is necessary.

Whether it´s Delta or McDonald´s, employees seem to forget that without customers, they don´t have jobs. The customer is not the enemy.