There was a guy in my new hire class who got fired after he no-showed a day of training. When they found him, at noon, he was still in the motel bed he'd fallen into after being out drinking, late, on a Weds. night. He had been a 727 Captain at People Express when he left for Delta. Before that he had been a Marine F4 pilot.

What got him drinking that night was, earlier that day, they gave out base assignments. He wanted Boston, where his wife and kids were living in the house he'd just bought. The Assignment Guy said, "We don't need any new guys in Boston, you can go to ATL or DFW."

Well, at that time (and until 1996) we didn't get to ride on our own Jumpseats, commuting was frowned upon, but we had many smaller bases so nobody really had to commute, unless you were a new hire and they put you into ATL and your house was in BOS.

Anyway, when they did a little deeper background check on this guy, turns out he had lied on his app, where it asks if you've ever been treated for alcoholism. He had, but he put No on the app.

They fired him, and the next day they came into our class and said, "Anyone still want to go to Boston? You can go now." I guess they felt guilty about putting this guy in a bad spot, family wise.

Last I heard, he got his Capt. job back at PE.