A segue is a smooth transition from one topic to another.
Around 1986, I was assigned to temporary duty in London (USNR, attached to CINCUSNAVEUR). I think the US had just bombed Kadafi. We were directed to grow our hair out a bit, to refrain from shaving, to hide our military ID, to carry a civilian passport, and vary our routes to and from hotels and offices. It was tense in the UK. Just getting to and into the Embassy and other USN buildings was dicey, due to Arab and anarchist protesters. (It was funny as heck, though, when I headed to work. Walking all around me were guys 21 to 30 years of age with shortish hair but not yet long, a day or three old beard, wearing almost identical military issue rain coats over civilian suits, and carring the same IDENTICAL Samsonite brief case. (Seems like every Ensign bought the same kind of brief case at the Academy or OCS during those days....lol). I thought to myself "dang...only a blind terrorist could miss identifying all of us as U.S. military service men. I dumped my briefcase and got a new raincoat the next day.)
On the flight inbound from the east coast USA to Heathrow, I noticed a short, wierd Middle Eastern guy. The two things that bothered me was not his ethnicity (the racial profiling did not; it was MY life I was protecting), but that he was pacing around in bare feet. His eyes were piercing. He was seething. He was probably in his early 20's.
Heathrow was socked in, so after (as I recall) about nine hours in the air, and several more circling, we were finally diverted to a Scandinavian Airport (can't recall which). We were told that "because of security concerns", we would not be allowed to de-plane. After 9 or 12 hours of being in an aluminum tube, folks were going nuts. We were out of food, drinks, even water, and the toilets were getting nasty.
I headed to one of the mid-section lavatories, and again, this guy was pacing around the wide body jet. About 10 seconds after I closed the door (I heard slamming and shouting. When I opened the lavatory door, the airline doors left and right were open, commando's with submachine guns were flooding the plane coming in via fast rope (maybe from helo's above?), and there was a desperate struggle immediately in front of me between the Middle Eastern guy, two short haired Americans, and a half dozen Commando's.
Within about 2 seconds, I made military-style snap decision, slammed the lavatory door shut and made myself comfortable (to stay the heck out of the line of fire), contemplating whether to eat my military ID or simply flush it.
It turns out, the two American guys were armed INS agents escorting an Iranian out of the country, unbeknownst to the airline staff. The commandos just took everyone down while the American's reached for their badges (very stupid) and yelled "INS...INS", as if that meant anything at all to the Europeans.
In the end it was both comical and tragic. The guy was heading back against his will to the land of the Ayatollahs, and he was either trying to avoid military service in the Iran/Iraq war, or perhaps was on one of the Revolutionary Guards many death lists.
It made for an interesting trip over though. We finally made it to Heathrow, about 12 hours late. It was a fine welcome to London, and nice start for my military duty.
SFS
A segue is a smooth transition from one topic to another.
Great read - thanks for posting it.