Stranded soldiers fly home in Iowa firm's jet

Carlson: Stranded soldiers fly home in Iowa firm's jet
JOHN CARLSON'S IOWA

August 22, 2007
Four days isn't a long time. If you don't believe it, ask a soldier who's on a quick visit home before heading off to Iraq.

That's how much time 2nd Lt. Kristy Goddard of Oskaloosa and 170 other soldiers in her Army Reserve military police battalion had.

They had been in pre-deployment training at Fort Dix, N.J., and went en masse to the Philadelphia airport to catch flights home for those precious four days.

Enter the weather, which virtually shut down the airport. So there the soldiers sat, waiting, watching the clock, knowing they would be lucky to get home for a day or two.

Goddard, 29, a Clinton native and Iowa State University graduate, got on the phone and called Jeanie Bieri, marketing manager at Musco Lighting in Oskaloosa, who is Goddard's boss at her civilian job.

Goddard explained the situation. Bieri told her to stand by.

Bieri called Shannon Cunningham, the company's travel coordinator. They talked about what Musco could do for Goddard and came up with a nifty idea: Send the corporate jet.

They asked Musco President Joe Crookham - who just happens to be Bieri's husband - what he thought.

"I told them to do whatever they had to do," Crookham said.

And that's how the world's foremost company in lighting outdoor events got an Iowan - and some of her fellow soldiers who needed a lift to the Midwest - home for a few days.

But there's more to the story.

The weather problems at the Philadelphia airport meant Musco's Citation 2 could not land there.

Just a complication. Cunningham arranged for a limousine - paid for by Musco - to take the soldiers from Philadelphia to Dulles airport outside Washington, D.C., where the jet could land.

Then there was the problem of space. The Citation has a seating capacity of eight. Nine soldiers needed a ride back to the Midwest.

The pilots, Jim Gualtieri and Tom Shannon, did some checking on weight and fuel and decided they could safely transport nine.

The ninth seat? The toilet.

Nobody complained.

So the jet made it to Moline, Ill., and five soldiers, including Goddard, got out.

"The pilots asked the others where they were going, and a couple of them said Kansas City," Crookham said.

"The soldiers said not to worry, that they'd rent a car.

"Have you ever tried renting a car at 2:30 in the morning in Moline? The pilots said they should get back on and they'd fly them to Kansas City."

That left two others, who were flown to Minneapolis.

"Nobody could understand what this meant to Kristy and those other soldiers," said Barb Goddard, Kristy Goddard's mother.

"Who knows how long they would have had to wait for a commercial flight, because so many people there had their flights canceled and had to be put on other flights.

"This meant the world to us. We feel so bad for all those other soldiers stranded at the airport, but Musco Lighting did what it could for as many of those soldiers as it could."

And, at great expense. Not that it mattered to Crookham.

"We never gave a thought to the cost," Crookham said. "It was never a consideration. There wasn't any question about what we should do. Those soldiers are going overseas for us."

I congratulated Crookham and said something about how doing the right thing doesn't make you rich.

He corrected me.

"You can make money and you can buy things and some people would say that makes you rich," he said. "I think this made all of us at Musco rich. Not in dollars, but in the notes and letters we get from soldiers who we were able to help. That's the best payment you can possibly imagine."

The Goddard family certainly will never forget what Musco did. It's doubtful any of the other eight soldiers or their families will either.

The soldiers had their four days at home and are now in Kuwait.

They'll be in Iraq soon.

N110WA. Looks like it was August 9/10. I can't find a picture of it online, but the reg is painted with 'N1' in yellow, and '10WA' in blue, so if you just look quickly at the tail, you see the Musco logo and "IOWA."

Great story Mike, thanks for posting, Corporate Aviation at it's best !

LGA777