This trip opened my eyes to a few things. The most glaring of which is that I’m not a big fan of people. In my professional, I get to see a lot of the worst in people and it’s difficult not to get jaded by it and start painting with a broad brush. However, I think I’m also pretty good at recognizing people who go out of their way for others.

For this trip, I got to travel in civilian clothes. I was a little worred about this initially because I’ve been a Soldier for a long time. That means I dont know how to dress myself. They don’t make business suits out of ACU fabric. I have no color coordination skills whatsoever.

Since I normally travel in uniform, I typically get treated well. People will move aside to allow me to pass or give up a seat (though I decline) if I’m standing at a full gate. This trip requires me to travel in civilian clothes. Let me tell you – it’s a much different experience.

Our flight getting out of Huntsville was delayed, so we were obviously late getting to Atlanta where I had a connection to my destination. I got off the plane with about 20 minutes to spare before my next plane departed. As you all know, they start boarding 30 minutes prior to takeoff normally.

So, I was going about as fast as my broken body would take me. All that speed walking I do for the APFT truly started to pay off. The concourses of the Atlanta airport are arranged like an antenna. To get from one concourse to the next, one needs to descend a set of escalators and either walk or take a tram to their respective concourse.

As you go down these escalators, clearly marked signs indicate that static passenger stay to the right to allow those walking to slide past. Obviously, not everyone is capable of following instructions. I probably had to excuse myself about 12 times going down and up.

On the way back up to the concourse where my plane was impatiently awaiting my arrival, one man stood in my way. In my casual, southern hospitality that had successfully gotten other individuals to move over and allow me to pass, I said “excuse me.” As people graciously moved out of my way, I gave a quick apology and “thank you” as I passed them. I was tired, worn out, and not in the mood for pathetic little power trips.

“Where do you think you’re going,” came the reply from the snooty businessman whose leather bag was blocking my passage. I instantly kicked his bag aside and replied in my not-so-southern hospitality-like First Sergeant voice, “where do you think you’re bag is about to go?” I didn’t wait for him to retrieve his bag, but he caught it after falling just one step.

I don’t understand some people. Why treat one group of complete strangers differently just because of the way they are dressed? Not every Soldier, fireman, police officer, TSA employee, medic, etc wears their uniform when they travel. You just never know who you are dealing with when talking to complete strangers. So, why not treat ALL people with respect? How hard would it have been to simply move the bag over – he wasn’t going anywhere just standing there – and let someone pass who is obviously in a hurry, regardless of his reasons? Is common decency dead?

The quick and easy answer to that question is “no”. My flight home was also delayed due to weather in Atlanta. Then, when we landed the gates were all full and we were stuck on the tarmac nearly an hour before making it to our gate. Obviously, since all the inbound flights were delayed, all the outbound flights were delayed.

The return flight to Huntsville was expectedly delayed as well. When I finally deplaned, I checked the status of my connection and saw that my plan was “at the gate” and didn’t appear to be delayed. Again, I had about 20 minutes to make my connection and huffed it through the terminal. It was all for nothing though as the flight was indeed delayed.

After boarding the plane, there were enough open seats to allow additional passengers on standby to board. One of those was an Army Private First Class in uniform. At the gate, a lady had dropped her Diet Coke, which ruptured and sprayed all over his bag and my pants. She was very apologetic and felt bad. The Soldier casually responded, “don’t worry about it, this bag has seen much worse.” Naturally, I didn’t care either. If I get thirsty later, I can suck on my pant legs!

I had a decent seat – 2A, a window. I like the window. OPSEC and counter terrorism training tells us that the window is a safe place to be; just not on the second row! The PFC was somewhere way in the back.

Once everyone had boarded the flight attendants noted that there was a weight imbalance problem. Due to having to take on additional fuel to avoid storms on the way to Huntsville, it was also overweight. The flight attendant came over the intercom, called three names, and asked them to bring all their personal belongings with them. The plane was just too heavy to take on additional standby weight.

I wasn’t paying much attention to who was being taken off the plane until I noticed the ACUs pass my seat. Immediately, I got the flight attendant’s attention and told her I’d like to give up my seat so that he can come on board. She explained to me that he was a “convenience” passenger. He was ticketed for the next flight, but trying to get on an earlier one. She said they were still checking weight and that I didn’t need to do that yet.

With three passengers already off, there was still a need for one more to deplane. A gentleman had walked up from the back of the plane and told the lady to give the PFC his seat. Again, they explained that he was a “convenience” passenger and that he would be okay. Turns out this Soldier is returning on mid-tour leave from Afghanistan and trying to get home to see his family. Now we had two people adamant about allowing this kid on the plane in our place.

Instead of forcing either one to give up their seat, they made the decision to remove some bootleg baggage from below (which turned out to be one of mine since my luggage is STILL lost!!). Bootleg baggage is extra baggage that is placed on an aircraft that is destined for the same location but later in the day. No one had to give up their seat and the Soldier was allowed back on the plane. The plane erupted into applause as he made his way to the back of the plane.

The spirit of America is alive and well. It’s just been perverted by a few knuckleheads. Though we may only remember the few idiots what to impede “where we think we’re going”, the majority of Americans are truly kind and generous people. In my experience, we will take care of each other if we perceive there is a need.