Chapter 359

Tuesday became Wednesday and then Thursday. Friday all the flights were started to get all the college security people in place for the Saturday night debate. The ones furthest away were picked up Friday morning.

Joni and Paula were each working on one of the Bombardiers as flight attendants today. They were paired with one of our regulars; the Bombardier usually carried two attendants when it is at capacity. Each Bombardier was making a three stop trip this morning and the same this afternoon. That would bring today’s numbers to 200.

Lorrie had one of the professional UAL attendants that worked for us part time give them training with the plane in the hangar. Then she made them go through the preflight speech and hand motions to the recordings until they had it perfected and followed that up with coffee, tea, soda and snacks cart service.

They also got a quick course on how to physically control an unruly passenger and get control of the situation with the help of Vicky and Ching Lee. They were going to get the full course later.

They had both flown on a couple of short G5 flights on Thursday and loved it.

With CPR and first aid completion cards in their pockets, there were more smiles now than frowns. It is a miracle what even little success stories will do for one’s confidence and self-esteem.

You would have thought we had given Joni a million dollars - her smile was that big when she was looking in the mirror, trying on the uniform Lorrie required.

When Lorrie pinned the brass lapel pins on their jackets Thursday morning, there were tears.

Joni Athens
Flight Attendant
JBG Flight Services

Paula Craft
Flight Attendant
JBG Flight Services

Jason had carried Paula to MVA Tuesday afternoon with enough documentation to change over her NC license to a MD license. It was another success story for the four. They could now go to outlets or the shopping center without having to ask someone to carry them. Marcy assigned one of the pool cars with the GPS locator so we could critique her driving if necessary.

Tomorrow both Bombardiers were going to PA to pick up 100 J&J construction workers to be parking lot attendants. They were big, burly, gruff and I am not going to put up with any B/S out of you; do as I say and move it kind of guys. One plus was they already had all of the new 2016 regulation reflective gear needed for event parking in Montgomery County.

J&J was paying for all the motel costs for them. Sunday they were going by bus to the new J&J Virginia site for a tour and to help layout the yard since it essentially had to be done from scratch. Then the Bombardiers were going to pick them up at Dulles for the flight to PA at 4 PM. The morning run for the Bombardiers was the three stop return trip. Joni and Paula were going to get a lot of flight time in just three or four days.

Friday afternoon I flew over to the convention center in one of the 407s and landed in the parking lot. I had with me the latest reports from Robert and Burt.

The three groups had been changing a lot of their plans. The arrest of the arsonists and the subsequent interviews of the group leaders by the Montgomery County sheriff’s office had not gone over well.

Andy had been right that they would try again; Friday night there was trash-can banging and bottle throwing in front of the center. They were trying to draw the security away from the rear of the building. They did not know that security had been doubled or that the guys there had one of the infrared drones.

Two guards responded to the commotion out front while Charlie and Hoss - the same two who had operated the gun drones in Morocco - stayed in the back lot flying the drone around the perimeter. The infrared cameras allowed the operators to see four more men coming across the rear parking lot carrying gas cans again.

A few minutes later they were surrounded and trapped like the rats they were. Instead of calling the Montgomery Police Department this time, Andy had them restrained to a light pole in the middle of the parking lot. They stayed there until he got there at daylight and sent Charlie and Hoss to search the car that had been left outside the parking lot.

With the first group, the only information we had came from the things our guards collected off their person before the county police got there. Their lawyers were waiting for them when they were unloaded from the squad cars. No one ended up with anything.