BostonHerald.com
By Peter Gelzinis
May 7, 2010
For the last week or two, it looked as if Jamil Brown’s long road back from near death and dismemberment in Iraq might be even harder than necessary.
Four years ago, the U.S. Marine sergeant lost his right leg to an IED. His left was shattered. He underwent two years of medical treatment in Washington and San Diego. Then, after learning to walk with a prosthesis, the Dorchester native returned to work at US Airways at Logan International Airport a few weeks ago.
That was the airport where, back in November 2006, the grievously wounded Marine was welcomed by his fellow US Airways employees like the genuine hero he was. His plane was escorted to the terminal by a water cannon salute.
But last month, when he came back to his longtime workplace, he was placed in a job that stripped him of his union seniority and cut his hourly pay in half.
While Brown seemed chagrined at working in the radio tower for a US Airways subsidiary, Piedmont Airlines, his shop steward, Jay Carey, was mortified and outraged.
“I was stunned when he told me where he was working,” Carey said. “He’d lost something like 16 years of seniority, to say nothing of the hit he was taking in pay. You gotta know J.B., man. He’s humble and laid-back. He wasn’t even as upset as I was.
“The company said that his papers weren’t filled out in time, and that there was a problem between waiving the part-time/full-time clause - hey, all of that’s baloney.
“This is a man who almost died for his country. This is a man who lost a leg for his country,” Jay Carey said. “The moral obligation here was a lot higher than any question of his status as a full-time or part-time employee. JB paid with his blood.”
I am happy to report that yesterday afternoon, about an hour after a reporter’s call was placed to the Tempe, Ariz., headquarters of US Airways, Jamil Brown was returned to the radio tower of the main carrier with his seniority and union status restored.
“I will tell you that we were working on a resolution to this situation for a couple of weeks,” said Morgan Durrant, a US Airways spokesman based in Philadelphia. “But maybe your call helped speed things along.” Yeah, maybe.
If only all problems were resolved so . . . so quickly and neatly. But then, all stories don’t involve a bright and brave Dorchester kid like Jamil Brown, who had chosen to return to active duty and combat in Iraq, after completing a full tour with the Marines.
“I had to be with my guys,” Jamil said, “just like I had to come home and work with my friends.”
Credit: By PETER GELZINIS
