SFAA: "Scene from Seat 9A from Washington Dulles to Newark, NJ"

* * * 'SFAA' is 'Scenes From An Airport'. Everyone knows a "road warrior", or at minimum, is familiar with the concept. The strong-willed business man, that spends more time in the seat of a plane, than sleeping in their own bed. I know one, and these are his stories. He’s my guest writer.* * *

Some people you just notice. They have a look about them that makes you wonder who they are? What they do? Where are they going? Today, all those questions were answered about the man in seat 9C.

The Continental flight from Washington Dulles to Newark is pretty short as my flights go. It is a Embraer corporate style jet with a single on the left and a double on the right. Since I finally have status on Continental I was able to select 9A…the prize seat on this type of aircraft. It is the single side seat in the exit row. More leg room and plenty of elbow room…very important as I planned to start my playoff run in Season 6 of my Madden 07’ PSP game.

Rewind…since this is generally about an airport a few notes about Dulles. This is the weirdest airport ever. It makes you feel like you are in the future, but the future if it was actually 1970 right now. One main terminal where you check in, go through security, and then… you go to little door that have your actual terminal listed and you load onto “people movers.” These look like giant Arctic Tundra vehicles that load up and drive around the airport in between the various terminals. They are building a train, which will be an improvement of major proportions since in some cases the “people movers” only leave every 15 minutes to particular areas of the airport.

I managed to make it to my flight though and will continue with my story. The man that sits in 9C (the window on the double side) is about 5’10 and is probably in his early 50’s. He is in great shape and looks like he is Italian decent…very New Jersey looking I would say. He is clean cut with a mustache and dark features. He is wearing a golf style shirt with an emblem that says “Special Operations Division Trainer” around an official looking crest. He is wearing blue pants that have two yellow strips running down the outside of each leg and black dress shoes. It is all well fitted and makes him look very official in a sort of business casual sort of way. I sort wondering what he does. The pants look like Marine Corps dress pants to me, though I can’t remember the color scheme of those. Maybe a trainer with the Navy SEALS…they let you have a mustache in the Navy.

A few minutes later a big guy in a much messier version of business casual sits in 10B…he is also very NJ looking in more of an overweight enforcer way. These two catch eyes and instantly both go into the “do I know you from somewhere?” conversation. Where do you live?…ex-military looking guy says Wayne, NJ…big guy says Newark. What do you do? Big guy says he is in “security.” Mustache man says he is a Sheriff…ok…Sheriff pants, now I know.

So they start naming names, organizations, etc… until they figure out their mutual friend and how they have crossed paths. What type of security are you in? Big guy says “physical.” I am not sure what that means, but the Sheriff was satisfied. Sheriff introduces himself formally and gives the big guy his business card. Says he was in D.C. briefing the Department of Justice…something he says he does every week. I think that seems unusual for a Sheriff from northern N.J. The Sheriff is quick to talk about himself. Big guy ends up being in the wrong seat and moves up to 9B. So now it is me in 9a, Big Security guy in 9B, and Mustache Sheriff in Marine pants in 9C.

The jet starts taxiing so I only catch pieces from there. Sheriff says something about writing a book that was being turned into a movie. I pause my touchdown drive to listen closer…”so who is in it?”asks Big guy.” Al Pacino and Leonardo DiCaprio…whoa! “So who is going to play you?” Leonardo…it is about my younger days. I am thinking “who is this guy?” So he goes on to explain that he went undercover in the Cali Drug Cartel and that is what the movie is about.

At this point I am figuring out how to Google this guy…do Sheriffs lie? If so, he was spinning a big one. He then went through his career on 25 years of law enforcement ending with him being elected Sheriff. Then the big guy starts talking about what he does…turns out to be the number 2 security guy for Prudential Insurance. They go heavy into shop talk at that point…who they know, who moved from public to private sector security, etc… Then they start running down all the security concerns over the last couple of days…the terror plot against Fort Dix (lucky for me I am headed to Fort Monmouth, NJ and not Fort Dix…yeah right, they are not far apart.)

They cover the bomb at the Luxor and say it was a domestic family issue and some other events I was not familiar with. They talk about evacuating buildings and how they could do it better today than on 9/11.

Fast forward…I get to the Newark Airport Marriot and start my research. Screw work, this stuff was too good not to Google. I find Wayne, NJ and find out it is in Passaic County, NJ which I Google for the Sheriff of said county. Up comes Jerry Speziale…the guy from seat 9C. Well, he didn’t lie about that part.

I Google him…book comes up about his experiences as a deep undercover agent in the Cali Cartel, his appearance(s) on The O’Reilly Factor, news articles about his team illegally speeding through Virginia on their way back to NJ from aiding after Katrina. He is batting a thousand on his facts…now will Leo really make another undercover cop movie?

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