MEMPHIS, TN – Wounded Marine Christian Brown is home in Munford, Tennessee. No thanks to Delta Airlines.
Corporal Brown lost his legs to an I-E-D explosion in Afghanistan and his dignity to an airline now receiving a lot of bad PR for its treatment of a local war hero.
Abc24.com was on hand Tuesday December 18, 2012 when Brown arrived home.
“CB” as he is known to most—has become a hero to all; and he’s handling the Delta situation the way you’d expect; with class.
That was obvious when he deplaned upon arriving home; and no—not from Delta.
“It was awesome,” Brown said of his flight, “these guys offered their services to me after hearing what happened with me and Delta.”
In early December CB was clumsily forced to the back of a Delta flight—even though another veteran offered his front row seat.
That vet contacted the Washington Post, which wrote: ‘Brown was obviously humiliated and visibly upset.’
Upon landing at Millington’s Jetport, Brown chose his words carefully when speaking about Delta.
“I do plan to get in touch with them,” Brown told abc24.com, “I will have that conversation we need to have. Hopefully, the end result will be bettering everybody’s experience.”
CB’s trip home was courtesy of the Veteran’s Airlift Command—an all volunteer organization.
“They contacted marine headquarters in Bethesda and offered their services.” said Lyn Braden-Reed.
Braden-Reed is CB’s mother.
That stands in stark contrast to Delta, which wrote on its blog: “unfortunately we failed in this situation.”
“It was difficult hearing everything,” Bobby Braden told abc24.com, “my father didn’t tell me everything because he didn’t want to upset me too bad. He said, son you have to have grace with people like that.”
Bobby is CB’s brother.
There was no grace needed for those who support the Veteran’s Airlift Command.
“We couldn’t have asked for better care than the pilot, Mike.” said Braden-Reed.
“It’s the least we could do,” said pilot Mike Bell, “these guys have given up a lot more and it is really an honor and a pleasure.”
Being at the center of a national media uproar did catch CB a little off guard.
“It was interesting.” CB said.
“You wouldn’t believe how many comments we had on Facebook.” said Braden-Reed.
Now home for the holidays, CB will pursue his passion of hunting and dealing with Delta.
“I think the matter will get resolved in the end,” said Brown, “and everybody will be better for it.”
Brown didn’t let any grass grow—taking off on a hunting trip with his brother, the day after arriving home.
In the future he plans to develop a hunting lodge for disabled veterans.
He has now recovered from a massive infection from which he was suffering that day on Delta.
