Sending your MIDN back to The Yard...

Capt MJ said:
Mad texting tonight - two out of three sponsor mids who I was picking up tomorrow have had flights cancelled - both American.

I just said to DH I am soooo glad I don’t have to be in Bancroft tomorrow night trying to get an accurate nose count of who is on Yard, home testing positive, travel delayed or some other variation, ramping up the COVID sorting hat as required, and so on.
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I was thinking the same thing. Being CDO or any level about that for accountability would be terrible. Then again with all the texting ability, it should be much easier than ‘back on the day’! Just get back safe everyone!
 
It’s fascinating to me. SW with record cancellations not only from weather…last week and again this week…but bc of staffing issues from sick employees. And a continuous roll along from the week of high volumes of holiday travelers.

The comment I heard yesterday from SW was “preemptive cancelling flights ahead of time, to keep people from being stranded in airports”. Plus day of weather.

I was a supervisor for an airline for many years. Also a flight attendant. All before 9/11. I nerd out with airline stuff 😂😂!!

Add to that Covid testing. Antigen. PCR. Vax status. Covid positive status….whoa. No kidding. Sorting hat is a great visual 🧙‍♀️!!

Safe travels to all. I’m cozied up under a blanket watching it unfold on the various parent sites, and SAF.
 
justdoit19 said:
It’s fascinating to me. SW with record cancellations not only from weather…last week and again this week…but bc of staffing issues from sick employees. And a continuous roll along from the week of high volumes of holiday travelers.

The comment I heard yesterday from SW was “preemptive cancelling flights ahead of time, to keep people from being stranded in airports”. Plus day of weather.

I was a supervisor for an airline for many years. Also a flight attendant. All before 9/11. I nerd out with airline stuff 😂😂!!

Add to that Covid testing. Antigen. PCR. Vax status. Covid positive status….whoa. No kidding. Sorting hat is a great visual 🧙‍♀️!!

Safe travels to all. I’m cozied up under a blanket watching it unfold on the various parent sites, and SAF.
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Me too without the airline supervisor part.
 
Said our "see ya soons" to DS yesterday morning, he had a direct cross country flight on Delta into BWI, departed and arrived on time. Then onto his sponsor's home (my brother's) until this evening. It was a rough early week for me (as mentioned in my OP), but a lot better than I thought it would be yesterday and today. I am guessing that once these Mids get back and get the battle rhythm drums beating, ROM or not, it will be good for everyone. It has been very appreciative and informative reading y'all's responses. Love and mad respect for these Mids.
 
The fourth flight was the winner. I drove him the 180 miles to the airport and dropped him on the curb with a hug. The flight was delayed 1.5 hours, but made it. No time to cry when you are the driver exiting the loading area.

He met other MIDN on the flight and they ride shared. I got a text at 2 am EST saying he had made it to Mother B. And the picture showed his hair iced over, and he said he only slipped and fell once. Winning!

He did email his Command his vaccination booster, proof of negative test, and did a phone interview with Senior Chief to grant him middle of the night access to Mother B. @Capt MJ my thoughts exactly. I cannot imagine being in charge of all of the head counting and data gathering right now.
 
My four firstie guests (DD among them) were scheduled to fly out Thursday evening. As the day progressed, two had their flight get cancelled, two had their flight delayed repeatedly. They managed to consolidate on the same flight. But just as they pulled out for the airport, that flight was cancelled.

They scrambled to find a flight early Friday morning that they thought was fairly priced. Thank goodness for three big airports in reasonable proximity to the Yard. Well before dawn, we piled into my car and headed to the airport. Their flight departed as scheduled.

All four hold major billets at the brigade or company level. So over the past two days, it was interesting to hear them discuss contingencies as things unfolded, e.g. “how do you think they [their officer CoC] will handle this/that situation?” and “how do you think we [the mid leaders] should handle this/that situation?” I took it all in silently, impressed with how they spoke of their responsibility and accountability.

At one point, I asked them if every firstie wanted a major billet in their final semester. No, they said, many firsties want lesser roles so they can take it easy before graduation. One of our guests then said, “We wanted these billets for spring, and we take them really seriously, because we really care about the place.” And with that, I smiled and offered them another piece of pizza.
 
I have been the victim of poor airline management so many times. Living in the Midwest, everything has to go through O'Hare with the commuter airlines, and the reliability of those commuters is horrible, particularly late in the day. (The model of having one plane fly multiple laps between small Midwest cities is horrible -- once delayed, the delay compounds during the course of the day, and by late afternoon, anything can happen). I have some experience with aircraft maintenance and operations through my P3 time, and my solution is to get a retired Maintenance Master Chief or CWO to run United's commuter operations at O'Hare. Not sure he would last long, but certainly wouldn't have so many people sitting around looking lost !

I will have to admit, I was very thankful for United last week -- we hosted my elderly Mother for 10 days over Christmas, and DW and I both watched the news of flight cancellations with concern that she wouldn't be able to get home. I was swamped with end of the year transactions, but was fully expecting a last minute drive to Chicago (6 hour + roundtrip depending on traffic). Mom needs assistance, and wouldn't have been able to deal with getting stuck in Chicago, but fortunately the trip went like clockwork. BIg relief here. Now need to get youngest daughter shipped off to Georgia tomorrow and will be back to empty nest.
 
Texts throughout late afternoon yesterday, last night, midnight, 0100 and 0545, two of two plebes with multiple canceled flights and re-books. Just got one from New Carrollton Metro after landing at DCA, picking up another going into Dulles and then Silver Line to Orange Line to New C later this afternoon. Nothing like texting “Metro DC 101” gouge complete with link to WMATA Trip Planner. They were game, though.

It will be a “cluster muster” tonight.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
I have been the victim of poor airline management so many times. Living in the Midwest, everything has to go through O'Hare with the commuter airlines, and the reliability of those commuters is horrible, particularly late in the day. (The model of having one plane fly multiple laps between small Midwest cities is horrible -- once delayed, the delay compounds during the course of the day, and by late afternoon, anything can happen). I have some experience with aircraft maintenance and operations through my P3 time, and my solution is to get a retired Maintenance Master Chief or CWO to run United's commuter operations at O'Hare. Not sure he would last long, but certainly wouldn't have so many people sitting around looking lost !

I will have to admit, I was very thankful for United last week -- we hosted my elderly Mother for 10 days over Christmas, and DW and I both watched the news of flight cancellations with concern that she wouldn't be able to get home. I was swamped with end of the year transactions, but was fully expecting a last minute drive to Chicago (6 hour + roundtrip depending on traffic). Mom needs assistance, and wouldn't have been able to deal with getting stuck in Chicago, but fortunately the trip went like clockwork. BIg relief here. Now need to get youngest daughter shipped off to Georgia tomorrow and will be back to empty nest.
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We crossed sooooo many fingers and toes. Party of 7 flying. Two times, to a vacation destination. Flights were cancelling everywhere. Right and left. Airport PACKED. Offers got up to $1,100 per person to give up their seats. LOTS of bowl gamers flying.

We made it there and back.

We had also driven a car (24 hrs one way), but were SO thankful we did. BC we still had to rent one (9 in our party total…was supposed to be 11 but grand baby got sick). And with the two Mids, needing to be back, we wanted a ‘sure thing’, in having our own vehicle.

And good thing we did. After a 3hr wait to pick up the one we DID rent? They began to run out.

And on the trip home, stranded families were even trying to book a car one way to get back (to no avail…they were gone!).

We drove there, boys drove back. Through storms and sleet and snow and bad weather.

Now their flights to USNA are cancelled. They get to stay another day.

I’ve never been more happy to not be an airline employee anymore. Or to be HOME.

GOD BLESS those workers. It’s not an easy season.
 
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Mid went back yesterday. No airline problems at all. However, he was supposed to stay at his sponsor family last night and while he was in the air, they texted him and said he wouldn't be able to stay with them...Covid issues and they didn't want to expose him. Luckily, another sponsor mom was able to take him in. So, even if the flights are fine, there are always bumps in the road.
 
DS flight on Delta departed and arrived in DCA without a hitch. Luckily the plane for his flight does a "milk" run type route between our airport and DCA so I was able to track the plane first thing this morning. After hanging in DCA for a little bit he linked up some other MIDNs for ride back to the Yard. No metro this time.
 
So Wolf.

Why not book a Flt back to Baltimore for Presidents day weekend (smack dab in the dark days). Just go yourself with the promise that you'll "mind the store" for your wife so she can do the same on another weekend. Solo visits are cheaper, logistics are easier and (my experience suggests) your son has stuff to share with you that just doesn't get out when Mom is around; (same-same for stuff he has to tell your wife).

While my own DD was at USNA, DW and I each did 1+ solo trip back to see DD each year; we just cut back on other travel. On my last trip out DD in her 1c year she stopped whatever she was doing as said:

"Dad, I want you to know how much your and mom's trips out here to visit have meant to me over these last 4 years. I love it here, but this can be a hard place to be sometimes, it just gets to be a dark grind. But, you'd come to visit and I'd have such a great time; the glow would last for 2weeks. Then I get back to it and I'd keep working, but by the time it was starting to feel like a lonely grind again, I'd look at the calendar and see that I only had 4-6 weeks to go until I'd see you or mom again, and take a mini vacation from this place.

Not her exact words, but pretty darn close------, She actually said that to me!

Truth is I got more out of those 3day weekend visits in Oct. Feb. than DD did. I got to see her in her environment and I got to support her in her USNA quest. We talked though a lot of stuff on those visits; I think I'm closer to her today than I was when we dropped her off at IDay 2015.

Fly in Friday, take the kid to DC Sat/Sun Night. Let him sleep in a real bed, order from a menu, visit a museum or 2 in DC. Let him stock up on treasures at Whole Foods on the way back to the Yard on Monday. Then let him show you around the Yard that he has come to think of as a home and tell you how it feels to be there.

I absolutely understand that these are tuff times for a lot of folks, but if you can swing the $$ this is a no-brainer (solos are cheaper, and actually better IMO). I've been lucky to have had the chance to do a fair amount of travel to some interesting places in my life, but those weekends with DD on the Yard and banging around in DC are among my absolute best memories.--------Kinda wish she was still there.

Shoot me a note if you decide to go.

Best:
Just Dad
 
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