AA fires WWII Vet

[eolesen]

Something ain't right here.... If he's 82 (which is what the news article said), he would have only been 16 or 17 in 1945 when the war ended, which means he wasn't old enough to serve in combat. That means he either lied about his age, or he is actually a Korea vet...

Which is it?

 

[FWAAA]

I thought about that but it's possible he saw action in WWII. Assume that his 83rd birthday is soon - that makes him 17 during most of 1945. If he joined when he was 17, (or earlier if he lied about his age), then he might have been fighting WWII during 1945.

As to the posters shouting about "age discrimination," remember that federal law (ADEA) prohibits discrimination of employees between the ages of 40 and 70. Under federal law, 82 year olds can be shoved out the door with impunity. Does NY state law extend protected status to age 82? If not, then there is no actionable age discrimination.

 

[Mach85ER]

IMHO "diversity" should also include tolerating a-holes. Sometimes for whatever reason, they do actually have a reason for being one.

Like alot of New Yawka's, he probably is a crusty old jackwagon. That being said, my guess is that that any employee whether they are male, female, transgender, xcrossdresser, black, white, yellow, brown, red, gay straight, both, jew, muslim, catholic, santeria, atheist, blah, blah, blah, would probably find this guy chewing through a steel wall if they asked him for help. "GFY "with those guys is quickly follwed by "sure" if you ask them for a helping hand.

All this rule does is cover for crap managers that should be perceptive enough to slam BS behavior into the ground the second it becomes a problem.

Signed,

An employee who has insulted every race, religon, sexual orientation, culture, nationality, species, plant, phyla, organism, virus, ameoba, and weather phenomana on this planet while on duty on company property. (I also include any blanket insults on any interrestial aliens).

 

[xUT]

My Brother was in Cam Ranh Bay in 1965. He was 16. Forging a birth certificate was much easier then before the advances of Hawaii in the 1960's....

 

[Hopeful]

Something ain't right here.... If he's 82 (which is what the news article said), he would have only been 16 or 17 in 1945 when the war ended, which means he wasn't old enough to serve in combat. That means he either lied about his age, or he is actually a Korea vet...

Which is it?

I believe he is 84...

 

[The Dissident]

I predict this will end like all of the recnt rule 32 cases where he will be returned to service but without backpay. The co has taken alot of heat in arbitration decisions in this matter concerning enhanced rule 32 actions. Unfortunatly he didnt have a competant shop steward to help him compose a grievance immediatly or all of this vould have been negated.

 

[xUT]

Regardless, he should not be terminated after 54 years of service for this BS.

 

[eolesen]

Some folks obviously have different understandings of where poor taste ends and Rule 32 begins.

The only argument for zero tolerance is that you don't have to worry about knowing where that line is drawn. Otherwise, it becomes useless and unenforceable.

And let's not forget some of the reasons why Rule 32 exists... people forgot how to be adults...

When I was still at JFK in 1992, someone decided to draw a noose with permanent marker on the door of one of my agent's locker, and also on the back of the door to the locker room.

I'm sure that was all just a misunderstanding too, right? And it was an isolated case, right?

Wrong. There were several lawsuits in the 1990's specifically related to nooses. The one in LAX got the most publicity, but I seem to recall similar lawsuits in SJU and MIA.

And it wasn't just breakrooms. You couldn't open up an engineer's table in a 727 or an O2 mask compartment without seeing porn taped inside.

All that stuff came from an inability to act like grown-ups, and allowing grey area resulted in an iinability for management to make discipline survive a grievance.

That's why you now have zero tolerance policies...

 

[JAFA]

I thought about that but it's possible he saw action in WWII. Assume that his 83rd birthday is soon

Actually his birthday is Sep of 1929 so he is actually still 81 until Sep of 2011 or in other words he turned 16 AFTER the war ended.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< ------- So what you're saying is that he's not a WWII vet, as he claims?

 

[nbmcg01]

<_< ------- So what you're saying is that he's not a WWII vet, as he claims?

Many young boys went to war "back then". Really not so unsual.

 

[Frank Szabo]

<_< ------- So what you're saying is that he's not a WWII vet, as he claims?

Things were a lot different in that era - records were hand-written and not computerized (obviously). A 15 year old (or less) could have entered the millitary if said kid "looked" old enough.

As with the Vietnam era, the services were not very picky as to what they took in - the fact being in the sixties many "no-counts" were being given a choice re: prison time or joining the Army and is a prime example of how little the miltary cared about what they take in (and ignore) when a large number of bodies are needed quickly.

This lack of "quality" in the Vietnam era led to the (otherwise) enlisted criminals doing the same things to their enlisted "buddies" as they did in civilian life which got them fragged in short order, then posthumously awarded medals after the platoon gave the "account" of how the guy "died defending his platoon" and "charged the enemy position" in combat.

FYI - WWI, with regard to "allowing" the under 18 crowd to join, was even worse, according to many accounts told later.

It's conceivable he lied about his age to get in and, rest assured, he wasn't the only one to do that, either in WWI, WWII, or 'Nam.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< ------Frank, I take it your some sort of "expert" on the Viet Nam era? You served did you? Or are you just giving us your opinon? I served from 1962-1966, and am a Viet Nam vet. I spent three of my four years outside U.S. territory, either supporting the war effort, or being dirrectly involved in it, and never ran into any of the types you suggest! ------ But maybe that's just me!?

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

The days of the porn in the COCKpit at least the job was enjoyable back then.

 

[xUT]

<_< ------Frank, I take it your some sort of "expert" on the Viet Nam era? You served did you? Or are you just giving us your opinon? I served from 1962-1966, and am a Viet Nam vet. I spent three of my four years outside U.S. territory, either supporting the war effort, or being dirrectly involved in it, and never ran into any of the types you suggest! ------ But maybe that's just me!?

What firebase did you serve?