US Airways Flight Attendant Refused to Hang Army Ranger's Uniform Jacket

In mid-October 2014, social media networks and news media sites were abuzz with the tale of First Sgt. Albert Marle, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who, while boarding a U.S. Airways flight from Portland, Oregon, to Charlotte on 9 October 2014, reportedly asked a flight attendant to hang up his uniform jacket to keep it from getting wrinkled. According to various accounts, the attendant denied Marle's request on the grounds that the airliner's closet was for the use of first-class passengers only, and Marle was not traveling in first class.

According to Charlotte television station WSOC, there was initially some dispute over what exactly transpired when Marle made his request:

An airline spokesperson said Marle was the fourth person to make that request and the closet didn't have space but passengers said that is not how the flight attendant responded.

"Her response wasn't that there's not space in the coat closet or 'I've hung too many jackets up.' It was just simply, 'Our airline policy says I'm not going to do it, so I'm not going to do it,'" said Brian Kirby, a first-class passenger on Flight 1930. "I was really appalled at not only the way she looked at him but the way she spoke to him in an angry type of attitude."

Passengers said the soldier did not raise a fuss and quietly returned to his seat. Some of them offered him their seat in first class but the soldier wouldn't take their seats.

"He was more than willing to take his seat. He was not going to make an issue of it. It was us in first class that made an issue out of it," said Kirby.