I was reminiscing about this and the past trials and tribulation of air travel. During the ruminations I thought of traveling while in the military. As fate would have it, someone sent me an email with just such a story included in it. Just thought that I would share it for laughs and giggles, and remembering a time when lots of things were less complicated. It is from a blog operated by a former Marine Sergeant:
More rare was the occasion that the entire company would buy the seats for a commercial flight, but there were some advantages. We would dress in cammies and, as there were no civilian passengers aboard the plane, we could carry our weapons up into the cabin. The only stipulation was that we had to have our weapons inspected for lack of ammo and to remove the bolt while the flight was in progress. It was on one of these flights that I heard the best public announcement, ever. After all Marines were seated, and roughly half of the company had verified that this was not a flight with complimentary alcoholic beverage service, smoking section, or dancing girls, the pilot got on the horn.
*ding* "Good afternoon, Marines! My name is Captain John Schmukatellie and I would like to welcome y'all aboard flight 1313 to sunny Panama. Temperature there is a warm 92 degrees, and of course the humidity is about 150 percent."
The only response was groans and a request for a beer.
"On our flight down South I would like to remind you to have all K-Bars, bayonets, and personal knives, daggers, spears and any implements of spearing, stabbing, or slashing safely sheathed. No poking anybody 'till y'all get on libo. Any pistols on board my plane also need to be holstered for the duration of the flight. Please make sure that any personal rifles and machine guns are safely stored in the overhead compartments or underneath the seats, making sure that the muzzles are not protruding into the aisle. Shouldn't be any grenades or other stuff that goes boom on board, so that's easy enough. I also want to say thank you for your service, and thank you for choosing this airline... Dang, I always wanted to say that kind of stuff, but never could!"
Now that's something that you don't hear everyday...