Posted on 02/20/2011 9:45:32 AM PST by GailA
WOODBURY, Tenn. - A military mom said she would do anything to answer her son's phone call from overseas, no matter what the cost.
Some seven months ago, Lance Corporal Mark Rhyne left the little town of Woodbury, for the remote deserts of Afghanistan.
"I told my son the day he deployed as he was about to get on that bus, 'I will stand in your steed while you are gone, I will stand,'" his mother Teresa Danford said.
On Monday, while working inside the Crane Interiors factory, Teresa Danford said she kept her word.
Mark called from Afghanistan, using a Satellite phone. It was a rare opportunity he only gets maybe once a month.
"You don't want to miss a word because truthfully that might be the last time you hear from them," Danford said.
Danford knew about Crane's no cell phone policy but answered anyway.
"There is nothing in this world that would stop a mother from answering a phone call from her son and what if it was not my son? What if he'd been hurt and someone was trying to contact me?" asked Danford.
The next day, Teresa was suspended from work without pay for three days. This was a first offense, and managers told her next time, she'd be fired.
"I said 'you are aware that my son is serving in Afghanistan and he can only call me when that sat phone gets to his unit' and he looked me straight in the eyes and said 'yes,'" Danford said.
Larry Officer is a Human Resource Manager at Crane Interiors. He sent NewsChannel 5 the following statement: "It is our policy that there is to be no cell phones used during working hours due to safety concerns within a production environment. Employees are allowed to use cell phones during breaks and lunches. We have a communicated policy for all employees to be reached in case of an emergency."
Danford said she fully expects to be fired for going public. But she remembered the promise she made to her son, the promise to always support him.
"If I didn't do this, then I couldn't live with myself. So if I lose my job, I lose my job. But I will have done what I gave my son my word that I would do," Danford added.
A lot of people have gotten wind of this story already, and they're not ignoring it.
A petition was posted online to demand that military family members are granted the right to answer calls from their loved ones serving over seas.
That's all Danford was asking for. She said talking to her son once a month gives her peace of mind, and gives her son the strength he needs to continue his work overseas.
Danford's son is scheduled to return home in a month, when he'll meet his son for the first time.
Email: ahara@newschannel5.com
Alright this is hocked off my FB page so all the credit for the phone number and message goes to Kate
Yeah...the company does have it’s rules, but those rules SHOULD be overlooked when it comes to our serving men and women. Common decency, IMHO. Oh...and (615) 563-4800.
During WW II...except for an occasional letter...no one had contact with their loved ones for two or three years. I suspect that we learned to live with it. The current society can’t.
Crane Interiors must be proud of themselves (sarcasm) May they reap what they sow.
I can't imagine carrying out a management dictat like that one.
I suppose they hire only Heartless Batardes as bosses ~ or maybe they give employment to hopelessly sociopathic ex-cons.
Gotta' be something strange going on there.
But it doesn't matter how long you have to wait ~ that differs with the conflict, and the social consequences can be far different.
Today's mail delivery service arose out of the need to eliminate blocks long lines at post offices where people would come every day to see if there were letters from a loved one far away in combat.
Are these the people who do boat interiors?
The Company has apologized and she gets her three days pay...
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/14065045/marines-mother-receives-apology-for-phone-call-suspension
And you don’t think they would have had more contact if it had been an option? I seriously doubt that would have been the case.
This isn’t the ‘40s and having had a son shot at on a daily basis over there during two tours, any communication at any time is welcome.
Either that or they are trying to enforce a policy to keep people safe and avoid being sued.
I don’t blame her for taking the call. If she got hurt or someone got hurt around her during the call they would sue the company. It doesn’t sound like an office environment.
She is lucky to just get a warning. Tennessee is a right to work state so she could have been fired.
She knew the rules nobody put a gun to her head to work there.
“Employees are allowed to use cell phones during breaks and lunches.”
A smart boss would have called that phone call her break.
That sounds good.
They didn’t have lots of stuff 60 years ago. Should we give it all up?
The Company has apologized and she gets her three days pay...
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/14065045/marines-mother-receives-apology-for-phone-call-suspension
***
Thanks for posting that.
Today we have electricity, indoor plumbing, and toilets. I suspect that you could learn to live without those too.
Fox news had reported this, I did not know this happened in Tennessee. Fox and Friends also reported this morning that she had gotten over 100,000 support letters from all over the country
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