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My nephew sent me an email that contained the quotes that are included later in this post. After reading the quotes, I got to thinking, and that usually causes me to reflect on our nation, its people, and its history. In a day and age where people feel that the world, the government, or somebody else “owes them something”, in a dark time in our nation’s history where so many are questioning our involvement in Iraq, these quotes are very relevant and timely.

We, as a people, seem to have thrown away our values, our heritage, and the remembrance of what it took to form this very young nation. Our founding fathers didn’t simply send a friendly letter to the King of England stating that we didn’t want to be their pawns anymore. Our forefathers had the grit to draw a line in the sand and defend it with all of their might. I fear that if our current population had been around in 1776, we would still be under British control. Other than the courageous men and women of our military who put their very lives on the line each day to defend our borders, I fear that we would be hard-pressed to muster enough “Average Joe Citizens” that are likewise willing to take up the flag and carry it into battle. Having served in the U.S. Navy for six years myself, I consider myself very privileged to be able to stand alongside side those who so selflessly serve today.

Well, enough of my ramblings. Here are the quotes.

“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
- George Orwell

“Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media for they will steal your honor.”
- Bobby McBride, Crew Chief, 128th Assault Helicopter Company, RVN 1969-1970

“For those that have fought for it, freedom has a taste that the protected will never know”
- General George Patton

“Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are”
- Teddy Roosevelt

And I would like to add one of my own favorites. It’s from the movie “A Few Good Men”. It’s the lecture that Jack Nickolson gave in the final courtroom scene.

“Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because, deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand at post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.”

I was finally able to escape Delta Hell in Cincinatti at 4 PM Saturday, which means that I was 23 hours late leaving.

Let me recap my experiences over the past two days:

I have one final parting thought: Delta, you really suck.

“You can checkout any time you like, But you can never leave!”
— Don Felder, Don Henley and Glenn Frey

I was sitting in Delta Hell in Cincinnati at 2:30 PM (which, by the way, means that my much anticipated 12:45 flight was delayed), when all of a sudden, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and saw three people that “allegedly” took off on the 9:05 flight to Nashville earlier this morning. “What the hell?”, I thought. As it turns out, they boarded the plane, got de-iced, taxied to out to an area near the end of the runway, got de-iced again, then started down the runway. Just as the front wheel left the ground, a “red light” came on in the cockpit, which forced the pilots to make a split-second decision to abandon their takeoff. They spent a total of THREE HOURS on a plane and did not go anywhere!!!

Yet another equipment failure for Delta, the folks that are “Ready when you are”.

As for my situation, I have learned that the reason for our delay is that the plane that was supposed to arrive from Raleigh left the gate, taxied out, and had to return to the gate due to equipment failure. My delays in December 2006 were also the result of equipment failures.

As further evidence to the overall sad state of affairs within the Delta empire, while I was waiting in the Delta Hell terminal, I heard (via announcements over the airport PA system) of at least five flights being delayed or cancelled due to “the crew has not yet arrived” and of two flights being delayed or cancelled due to “equipment failures”.

Is it just me, or isn’t there a pattern here that screams to be corrected?

If you check my Delta Airlines post from December 2006, you’ll see a sordid tale of delayed flights from that airline that is “Ready to go when you are”. Unfortunately, two years later, I have once again been relegated to Delta Hell.

It started when I arrived in Cincinnati yesterday, optimistic that I would arrive in Nashville on time. Ohhh silly me….

My Nashville flight was scheduled to depart Cincinnati at 5 PM. Around that time, we were told that the flight that had our crew on it was still in Little Rock, AR (by the way, it’s a 1.5 hour flight from Little Rock to Cincinnati), so at 5 PM, when our flight was scheduled to depart, you would have thought that Delta would have already realized that the EARLIEST possible time that the 5 PM flight could depart would be 6:30 PM. But no, the ingenous Delta information system only politely updated the new departure time to 5:25. Say what? Can’t they friggin’ do the simple math? Delta, you suck!

At around 7 PM, they told us that the “flight had just arrived from Little Rock and once the crew transferred to our plane, we would be ready to go”. Now comes the really good part. At 7:30, they informed us that our crew (the one that got here late from Little Rock), had “time out”, which means that they had logged the maximum allowable passenger hours for the day, so they cancelled our flight. Delta, you really suck!

I gathered up my stuff and immediately ran to the nearest ticket agent and got booked on the 9:05 PM flight to Nashville. Imagine my surprise when at 9:05, we were told that “the airplane and pilots are at the gate, but the flight attendants were MIA”. At 9:30, they finally told us that the flight was cancelled. Delta, you really really suck now.

Now frustrated, frazzled, and weary, I hurried to the next “Ready when I am” Delta agent to see what my options were for getting to Nashville (anytime in the near month, year, decade, lifetime). I was told that the absolute earliest would be 7:30 Sunday evening. Hey, wait a minute! It’s friggin’ Friday night and you’re telling me you can’t get me home to Nashville until Sunday evening, two days from now?!!? After several heated exchanges, we (the Delta lady and I) finally agreed that I would fly to Chattanooga and drive home, so she booked me on the 5 PM Saturday afternoon flight to Chattanooga. I was given a hotel voucher and three $7 meal vouchers. Boy, do I feel lucky now, but Delta, you still really really suck.

When I got to the hotel, I decided to check Delta’s website to see if there were any other options to getting closer to home. Imagine my surprise when I found not one, but two, direct flights to Nashville, scheduled to leave at 9:45 and 12:45. So, to the friendly Delta Hell lady that “overlooked” these two options when I asked for you help earlier, you REALLY REALLY REALLY suck.

I immediately called 1-800-Get-Me-Out-Of-Delta-Hell, and after 30 fun-filled minutes on the phone with a Delta lady that truly was more helpful than anyone else that I had spoken with earlier during the day, managed to get booked on the 12:45 flight. Hmmmm, maybe I will get home before Delta Hell freezes over.

So, here I am still sitting in the Cincinnati airport on Saturday morning about an hour away from my much anticipated escape from Delta Hell. I’ll keep you posted as to my continuing saga.

My frustration in all of this is fueled not only because of flight delays or the seeming lack of intelligent life in the Delta information system, but more than anything else, by the “don’t give a crap” attitude (with the exception of the Delta Angel that I spoke with at 1 AM on the phone) that I encountered throughout all of my time here in Cincinnati. The poor gate agents who are caught in the middle just look at you and robotically repeat the Delta Hell mantra of “we apologize for the inconvenience, but…”. At no time did I perceive any sincerity concern in their looks.

It’s no wonder this airline was in bankruptcy in 2007. If they had any genuine concern for their passengers at all, they would be doing all that they can to improve the situation, but instead, they just keep getting you there whenever the hell they feel like it. They try to blame lots of this on the weather, but the cause runs much deeper than that. Most of the delays that I’ve experienced were the result of equipment failures and/or poor crew scheduling. It seems, from the outside looking in, that the Delta empire is nothing more than a house of cards where if one card is pulled out of place, large portions of the entire enterprise come tumbling down. I don’t like having my life in the hands of companies that run their businesses like this.

Delta, you really really really really suck.

This past week, two colleagues and I had the misfortune of making flights on Delta Airlines. All three of us flew from Nashville, TN to Orlando, FL and back. Two of us flew down on Sunday afternoon and the other flew down on Monday morning. We all returned the following Friday evening. A good time was not had by all…

For the sake of this discussion, let’s call our three unlucky travellers persons A, B and C:

Persons A and B were scheduled to depart from Nashville on Sunday at 2:13 PM. We should have known that something was up when we arrived at curb-side check-in at 12 noon, only to be informed that the flight departure had been delayed until 3 PM. After a brief stay in the waiting area, we then were told that the departure had been delayed until 4 PM. To make a long story short, we finally departed Nashville at 9:10 PM.

Person C was scheduled to depart from Nashville on Monday at 7 AM, with a scheduled arrival in Orlando at 9:55 AM. His flight was cancelled and he was re-routed through Atlanta. He arrived in Orlando at 3 PM, forcing him to miss an entire day at a week-long $2,800 conference (which was the reason for these flights in the first place).

Now, fast-forward to our return trip on Friday evening. The return trip for all three persons was scheduled to depart Orlando at 7:25 PM. Our departure was delayed until 8:10 PM. While sitting in Orlando Airport watching the departure board, I noticed that out of the 23 remaining Delta departures scheduled for Friday evening, 8 of them were delayed between 30 minutes and 3 1/2 hours! All of the delays that our three travelers experienced resulted from what Delta described as “equipment malfunctions”. Adding further insult to injury, the Delta counter agents “barely” offered anything that resembled an apology.

When you add it all up, these three travellers were delayed a total of 20.5 man-hours, not to mention the $560 loss in one day at the conference for person C. Is this any way to run an airline? It’s no wonder that Delta recently filed for Chapter 11.