Widow of Nam vet told “it’s against company policy” to sing anthem for fallen Green Beret on flight

A Georgia physician who attempted to sing the National Anthem aboard a Delta Air Lines flight carrying the casket of a Sgt. Dustin Wright -killed during Special Forces operations in Niger- was stopped by the flight crew, claiming that singing the song would violate company policy and make foreigners feel uncomfortable.

Savannah resident and physician Doctor Pamela Gaudry claims she and her fellow passengers were told to sit quietly in their seats as the casket was escorted from the cargo hold on Saturday, under the grounds that singing the song may make non-Americans feel uncomfortable.

Gaudry -whose late husband saved countless lives as a flight surgeon in Vietnam and is currently married to another Vietnam veteran- was not at all satisfied by the order to keep quiet.

“I couldn’t put up with that,” Gaudry recalled. “I wouldn’t be offended if I was in their country.”

After deboarding, she posted a recounting of the incident on Facebook, which has been viewed well over 778,000 times.

When informed of the presence of fallen Army Staff Sergeant Dustin Wright (though not by name) in the cargo hold, the doctor asked her fellow passengers if they would join her in singing the national anthem as a tribute and show of respect. While most people were on board, the chief flight attendant quickly -and quietly- put and end to the idea.

“The chief flight attendant came back to my seat and she kneeled down and she said, ‘It is against company policy to do what you’re doing,”‘ Gaudry said in the video. “And I said, ‘The national anthem? And there’s a soldier onboard?’ And she said, ‘Yes, you cannot sing the national anthem. It is against company policy.”

Delta spokesman Anthony Black declined to comment on any specifics of the incident.

“There is not a policy about singing the national anthem, period,” Black said.

For Gaudry, she regrets putting her head down instead of disobeying her instructions and singing the anthem.

“I just did the most uncourageous thing in my life today,” she said of herself in the video.

According to CBS News, Gaudry hopes her video will draw attention to the issue- and not herself.

“If it instigates a spiritual and patriotic feeling in this country, I’m thrilled,” Gaudry said of her video. “I’m not real thrilled with the attention to myself.”

In a later Facebook post, Gaudry noted that this was more a personal issue than one of seeking fame.

“For those few that felt that I was doing it for the glory: Please. Please stop,” she wrote. “My new husband is a veteran, and so were both his brothers. One of them is a retired general. They all served during the Vietnam war. My deceased husband was a flight surgeon in Vietnam, a 20 year veteran of the Navy. I have been handed a flag after an honor guard honored him at his funeral.”

“I sincerely wish there was a recording,” she added in hindsight. “You would have been horrified too. I was horrified. I made the video after leaving the plane.”

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