A Morally Corrupt Virgin
March 12, 2013
By Bruce Bawer
...
Petty Officer Nicky Howse, 32, who has been a helicopter technician in the Royal Navy for fifteen years, serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere, is now, on a three-month deployment in California. Recently she had to return from Los Angeles to Britain to attend her grandfathers funeral. She flew Virgin Atlantic, and wore her uniform, and the entire flight passed without incident. Last Monday, however, when she turned up at Heathrow to fly back to LAX, the trouble started at once.
At check-in, an airport security guard, employed by the firm G4S, told Howse that she couldnt fly in her uniform. He was rude, she told a friend by e-mail, he wouldnt let the check-in girl give me my passport. After this encounter, she described herself as shaking with rage. But at least she thought that was the end of it. Nope: when I got to the departure gate I was taken to the side by the flight supervisor a Virgin employee and they said I wasnt allowed to fly in uniform and had to wear a sleep suit. I then stood feeling completely humiliated with other passengers, clearly curious as to what was going on, staring at me, waiting for him to come back with the black pyjamas.
Howse asked if this no-uniform business was airline policy. The flight supervisor said yes. I refused to wear [the 'pyjamas'] until after I was on board then still refused but basically got told Id be asked to leave the flight if I didnt take it off or cover it up. Howse went ballistic, she wrote in her e-mail. I said In the country I defend I cant wear my uniform?
...
A sidebar to the Mail article noted that Howses abusive treatment at Heathrow was hardly unique in Britain, where one in five of our servicemen and women have had insults hurled at them by strangers while wearing their uniforms in public, and where over five percent have suffered violence or attempted violence because they served in the military. Last June, six servicemen wearing dress uniform to carry the coffin of a comrade killed in battle were denied entry to a Coventry bar before the funeral.
The sidebar offered examples of how different things are in America: at U.S. bars and restaurants, civilians routinely pick up soldiers checks; armed forces members get boarded first on airlines and are often given upgrades to first class; and so on. Irate British readers who commented on the article attested to the starkness of this contrast:
A Morally Corrupt Virgin
March 12, 2013
By Bruce Bawer
...
Petty Officer Nicky Howse, 32, who has been a helicopter technician in the Royal Navy for fifteen years, serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere, is now, on a three-month deployment in California. Recently she had to return from Los Angeles to Britain to attend her grandfathers funeral. She flew Virgin Atlantic, and wore her uniform, and the entire flight passed without incident. Last Monday, however, when she turned up at Heathrow to fly back to LAX, the trouble started at once.
At check-in, an airport security guard, employed by the firm G4S, told Howse that she couldnt fly in her uniform. He was rude, she told a friend by e-mail, he wouldnt let the check-in girl give me my passport. After this encounter, she described herself as shaking with rage. But at least she thought that was the end of it. Nope: when I got to the departure gate I was taken to the side by the flight supervisor a Virgin employee and they said I wasnt allowed to fly in uniform and had to wear a sleep suit. I then stood feeling completely humiliated with other passengers, clearly curious as to what was going on, staring at me, waiting for him to come back with the black pyjamas.
Howse asked if this no-uniform business was airline policy. The flight supervisor said yes. I refused to wear [the 'pyjamas'] until after I was on board then still refused but basically got told Id be asked to leave the flight if I didnt take it off or cover it up. Howse went ballistic, she wrote in her e-mail. I said In the country I defend I cant wear my uniform?
...
A sidebar to the Mail article noted that Howses abusive treatment at Heathrow was hardly unique in Britain, where one in five of our servicemen and women have had insults hurled at them by strangers while wearing their uniforms in public, and where over five percent have suffered violence or attempted violence because they served in the military. Last June, six servicemen wearing dress uniform to carry the coffin of a comrade killed in battle were denied entry to a Coventry bar before the funeral.
The sidebar offered examples of how different things are in America: at U.S. bars and restaurants, civilians routinely pick up soldiers checks; armed forces members get boarded first on airlines and are often given upgrades to first class; and so on. Irate British readers who commented on the article attested to the starkness of this contrast:
A Morally Corrupt Virgin
