A doctor from the state of Georgia was stopped from honoring a slain Army soldier whose casket was aboard a Delta flight heading towards Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
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Dr. Pamela Gaudry says a Delta Airlines flight attendant prevented her from singing the national anthem to honor 29-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright.
“[The flight attendant] knelt down in front of me because I was in the exit seat and there was a lot of room and she said, ‘You can’t do what you are doing,’ and I just looked at her and she said, ‘It’s against our company policy.’ I was in shock and she said it again,” Gaudry said on FOX Business’ “Risk and Reward.”
Gaudry said she was encouraged to honor Sgt. Wright after receiving positive responses by other passengers as she walked through the cabin asking them if it was ok to honor the special forces solider killed in the Oct. 4 Niger attack.
“I just thought wouldn’t it be great when he stood up if we sang to him, when he was going off the plane,” she said.
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Delta Airlines said in a statement that it takes “great pride in Delta’s longstanding support of the military.”
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“Our employees worldwide take great pride in Delta’s longstanding support of the military. The respectful ceremony of the Delta Honor Guard is one symbol of Delta’s pledge to the men and women of the armed forces,” said Delta spokesman Brian Kruse.
Gaudry said a company representative reached out to her in a phone call apologizing several times later that night after she arrived at her home.
“And 100 times he said, ‘This is not our policy, this is not our policy’ and he said, ‘you know we honor these boys’ and I said to him, ‘it was a beautiful honor but she told me I couldn’t sing’,” she said.
