Is Jackie Chan one of your heroes? He's one of mine. And I have never seen one of his movies. But he rescued me in real life--at least in the sense of getting me home on time for Mother's Day instead of three days late.
How did he do that?
When I was flying to Asia regularly I flew Cathay Pacific whenever I could. This Hong Kong based airline had the best service of the many airlines I flew during the three years I went overseas every month on business.
I was in Singapore in May of 2000 and was flying home through Hong Kong to Los Angeles. The flights from Singapore to Hong Kong and then to America were Cathay Pacific. When we boarded in Hong Kong there was a big commotion because Jackie Chan was in first class flying to the premiere of one of his movies in L.A.
The flight was uneventful until two hours past Japan when the plane turned around.
It was heading back to Japan. It turns out an old woman who was going to LA to see her family died on the plane. The 747 was headed back to Japan for the standard quarantine. That meant 417 passengers would be looking for flights. It could mean a three-day delay and I would miss Mother's Day the year we adopted our son Nigel.
But when we landed, Jackie Chan went out to talk to the Tokyo Airport officials. Jackie Chan is as big in Japan as everywhere else in Asia. He started signing personalized photos for all the officials. When the deceased woman was taken off the plane, they refueled us and let us go!!!
No way that would happen without a real life Superhero. I never got a chance to thank Jackie Chan for getting me home for Mother's Day.
He will always be a Superhero for me!!
Veteran of four wars, four enlistments, four branches: Air Force, Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard. I am both an AF (Air Force) veteran and as Veteran AF (As Fuck)
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Who Fights Our Wars? Pamela Allen Bleuel
On the left in this photo is the subject of a blog post I wrote in 2009 in Iraq. She is Pamela Allen Bleuel, a tough, funny woman who ran convoy training at Camp Adder. She is shown here in Afghanistan in 2012. Follow this link to the 2009 post. I changed her name at the time, so you will see Sgt. Beaufort.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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