June 05, 2007
Where have all the men gone?
Want a great example of everything that's right with Americans born before the Baby Boomers -- and everything that's wrong with the Boomers and their metro-sexual, feminized, violence-never-solved-anything successors?
Shortly before landing, Bob Hayden and a flight attendant had agreed on a signal: When she waved the plastic handcuffs, he would discreetly leave his seat and restrain an unruly passenger who had frightened some of the 150 people on board a Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with erratic behavior.
Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former US Marine.
"I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all he said was, 'Retired captain. USMC.' I said, 'You'll do,' " Hayden recalled. "So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the situation."
[...]
Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading.
"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations.
"I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."
The men castrati who avoided eye contact with the men who handled the situation should be ashamed of themselves.
As the Bard said in Henry V,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
It really is a marvelous speech, especially when delivered by a brilliant actor like Kenneth Branagh.
Anyhow, Shakespeare was right more than 400 years ago; those male passengers who allowed these two graybeards to fight for them while they cowered in their seats must surely hold their manhoods cheap -- if they even know where said manhoods can be found.
Posted by Mike Lief at June 5, 2007 10:17 PM
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I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it
He has the coolest wife ever.
Posted by: Trickish Knave at June 6, 2007 11:28 AM
Reminds me of the story of the 70 year old former Ranger who killed a would-be robber with his bare hands in Costa Rica earlier this year. It appears that the "Greatest Generation" is also the "Toughest Generation." Here's the story if you haven't seen it:
Carnival cruise ship abuzz over passenger, 70, who killed robber in attack
By Juan Ortega
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 26, 2007
By the time an eight-day cruise returned to Port Everglades on Sunday, the tale of one passenger had grown to nearly mythical proportions.
Passengers touring the western Caribbean aboard Carnival Liberty swapped stories about a U.S. military veteran who thwarted a robbery Wednesday in Limon, Costa Rica, one of the ship's stops. The American used his bare hands to kill an armed robber who had attacked a woman traveling with him, according to Limon Police Chief Luis Hernandez.
Many of the 3,000-plus passengers hadn't met the woman's defender but knew he was returning to the United States aboard their ship. They assumed he was young, fast and strong.
'I figured he was a military guy who knew how to fight, who took his life in his hands and could have gotten shot and killed,' said Bill Phillips, 37, of Holbrook, N.Y.
He recalled hearing multiple versions of the story, including one in which a woman killed the robber. 'Everybody was like, `What's going on?''
In fact, it was a military veteran in his 70s from Ohio, Hernandez said. The man and 12 other tourists, all traveling together, were getting out of a van to visit a beach when three masked men ran toward them in an apparent robbery attempt. One attacker held a gun to a woman in the group and the Ohio man put him in a headlock, broke his collarbone and killed him, Hernandez said.
Two other robbers fled, he added.
Police didn't identify the American. They called his actions self-defense and let him and others return to the ship. Members of the group did not identify themselves to waiting media when the ship docked at Terminal 19 of Port Everglades Sunday morning.
Passenger Don Correy, 54, of Kanab, Utah, heard the story from his son, who heard it from a friend.
'I didn't know if it was true,' Correy said as he waited for a cab at Terminal 19.
The attack in Costa Rica prompted Carnival to replace the port call in Limon with a stop in Roatan, Honduras, according to Aly Bello, a Carnival representative. She said Sunday she didn't know whether the change was permanent.
Carnival officials, citing safety concerns, warned passengers not to leave the port when the ship stopped in Colon, Panama, its third and final destination before returning to Port Everglades, passengers said Sunday. Bello did not confirm that.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Juan Ortega can be reached at jcortega@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2004.
Copyright © 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel, All Rights Reserved.
Posted by: CPT AP at June 6, 2007 03:30 PM
As a kid, I used to go fishing with some old World War II vets, one of which lived across the street from me.
They were straight up red blooded American. I loved hearing their stories and listening to their no nonsense God-and-country view of things. After serving their country, they worked honest jobs, raised families, fished, hunted, joined community groups and lived as model American citizens. They've crossed the dark sea now and I will always be grateful for having the opportunity to spend time with them. Truly, they were a part of the greatest generation.
Posted by: Bill H. at June 8, 2007 09:44 PM