Gold Star Family Booed by Passengers on Flight-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
First class passengers booed the Gold Star Family of a fallen Marine sergeant because they were allowed to deplane first to catch a connecting flight to meet their son’s remains.
The Truth:
Gold Star father Stewart Perry, an ex-Marine from Stockton, California, said “it was really disgusting” when his family was booed en route to his son’s burial in Arlington National Cemetery.
A Taliban suicide bomber killed Sgt. John Perry inside a NATO airbase in Afghanistan on November 12th, 2016. On November 19th, Stewart Perry, his wife and daughter were aboard an American Airlines flight from Sacramento to Philadelphia that was delayed, making a connection in Phoenix hard to manage, the Army Times reports:
When the plane arrived in Arizona, the captain announced that everyone was to remain seated to allow the Perry family to leave first.
“When he made that announcement, there was some hissing and some booing behind us,” said Perry, who was sitting in first class.
Perry, a Marine veteran, doesn’t remember the captain telling everyone the reason they had to wait, but he said he does recall the captain mentioning “military personnel.”
“I believe that the passengers knew there was a Gold Star family on board,” he said. “The woman sitting directly behind us touched me on the shoulder and asked if I was the father of the soldier killed in Afghanistan.”
That leads Perry to believe some kind of announcement was made before he and his family sat down.
“It was very disappointing,” he said. “It’s just enough to put you over the edge.”
Stewart Perry said being booed by passengers aboard their flight made his family “cry some more” — but that his goal in going public with the story was to bring attention to his son’s heroic acts, CBS Sacramento reports:
“Most importantly, I want people to know about the heroic thing that my son did,” he said.
His son stumbled on the suicide bomber before he could reach his target—a soldiers’ 5K Veterans Day run.
“He would have killed 100, 200, who knows?” he said.
Perry says his son’s death comes at a time military service is facing disrespect. He says his family was even booed on the flight to bring his son’s body home over a delay.
“To hear the reaction of the flight being delayed because of a Gold Star family, and the first class cabin booing that was really upsetting, and it made us cry some more,” he said.
Seventeen people were killed in the blast that claimed Perry’s life, and 16 more U.S. service members were wounded.