Days stranded at airport still count as leave, CO says
By Medal of Dishonor
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — Following a hectic two weeks of holiday travel, many U.S. military service members have felt the aftereffects of bad weather, canceled flights, and wasted precious days of leave. Airman 1st Class Evan Parker, for example, was informed by leadership that his six days of sitting in the SEA-TAC Airport after 22 canceled Southwest flights would count towards his leave balance.
“If we make an exception to policy now, what’s to stop us from giving everyone free days of leave on any given Sunday? No, that’s not how I’ll choose to run this unit,” said Parker’s commander, Lt. Col. Brent Zoll.
“A1C Parker chose to attempt to spend the holidays with his loved ones, and the United States Air Force is not obligated to reimburse those days of leave, even if he didn’t step foot out of the McChord local area during that time,” he added in an email that included a signature block quote on leadership.
Parker, a loadmaster with the 11th Airlift Squadron at McChord AFB from Houston, Texas, was attempting to travel home for the holidays. It would have been Parker’s first time back in over a year. Following his canceled flight on the night of December 23rd, Parker was rescheduled for every subsequent day up until December 28th, his last day of chargeable leave, in which Southwest Airlines admitted that they would be unable to reschedule him until January 2nd, five days after he was supposed to return from leave.
“SEA-TAC was like a refugee camp. People were sleeping on any horizontal surface available,” said Parker. “The worst part is, December 23rd and 26th were holidays, so if I had just not put in left, I would’ve been in the same situation, but without wasting the six days of leave. I would’ve just enjoyed the comfort of my home rather than the airport floor. I was really excited when I won the leave lottery for this year because I haven’t been home for Christmas since 2019. Oh well, maybe I’ll get lucky again next year.”
Parker’s luggage and countless others remain in the ethers of Southwest’s luggage tracking system. He has reportedly been awarded a Saturday day pass by his command staff and $10 of credit at the squadron booster club to help compensate for his six days of leave that were charged for his canceled vacation.
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“We in RVN attempted to award Santa a posthumous Purple Heart but the powers in the Pentagon denied it for all these years saying he was not shot down by enemy forces. Their theory was based on that we never were in Cambodia and besides the North Vietnamese celebrated Christmas too and were not his enemy. But alas, when the sleigh came down there were a few soldiers who in a smoke induced haze saw a way out and grabbed the reins jumping in the sleigh and taking off. Rudolph took these goof balls around the world and they ended up in the North Pole still leading the elves in the Christmas spirit. They started a VVA chapter and now are in their 70’s trying to get Santa successors to take over. Most of these new recruits are volunteers and fail to understand how to get down chimneys, something we RVN folks always have understood. Merry Christmas from all us now old RVN soldiers, sailors, flyers, and coasties.
I did not forget the Marines. They are not sailors altho they do sail. But one of the elves who jumped on that sleigh was a marine and he still yells hoorah whenever he jumps down a chimney.”’
—reader comment on CIA reveals Santa was killed in Cambodian airspace in 1971
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