I guess they consider them more third class steerage or standby. Sad really, after all that time away.
I was lucky way back when.. Tiger Airlines .. 707 with a flame show in Anchorage, but we made it.
At least no one was lost , no easy feat considering travel these days
Now,who is "they"? Is it the Army or the airlines in question? As I suggested earlier the airlines didn't have any legal...or even moral...obligation to the soldiers.Was it that none of the airlines were able to accommodate the Army with the proposal they were given? Too little $$$? Too little notice? Too many soldiers to accommodate at that particular time? I honestly don't know.
But I agree with you that regardless of who's "responsible" it's quite disgraceful that these soldiers were subjected to this.
Tiger Airlines....the plane we got off of in Anchorage refueled and headed back to Japan with military and dependents ended up crashing right after takeoff. October 1963. One of the most costly in lives air disasters in US history. We noticed one of the prop engines smoking and spewing sparks before we sat down in Anchorage coming from Midway. Our flight to Travis AFB from Anchorage on a separate aircraft was quiet. The pilot announced over the intercom what had happened to the airplane we had just disembarked and left.