From BLACK-FIVE,
A military mom said she would do anything to answer her son’s phone call from overseas, no matter what the cost.
Some seven months ago, Lance Corporal Mark Rhyne left the little town of Woodbury, for the remote deserts of Afghanistan.
“I told my son the day he deployed as he was about to get on that bus, ‘I will stand in your steed while you are gone, I will stand,'” his mother Teresa Danford said.
On Monday, while working inside the Crane Interiors factory, Teresa Danford said she kept her word.
Mark called from Afghanistan, using a Satellite phone. It was a rare opportunity he only gets maybe once a month.
“You don’t want to miss a word because truthfully that might be the last time you hear from them,” Danford said.
Danford knew about Crane’s no cell phone policy but answered anyway…
This is beginning to gather some major steam. Many well known combat vets are sending this note around with a request to sign a petition and contact Crane Interiors:
Management of Crane Interiors suspended Teresa Danford from work for 3 days after she took a precious and rare phone call from her son, LCpl. Philip Mark Rhyne. There is a no cell phone policy in effect at Crane Interiors, which she knew she would have to violate in order to speak with her son. She had hoped that her employer would have compassion for her circumstance and over look the ban in this very invaluable case. The opportunity to hear from her loved one is few and far between, therefor rendering her unable to predict when he can issue contact nor schedule the call in that she does not violate any sort of policy that the company holds. Once the opportunity arises to hear from Mark, to ease her mind that he is alive and well, it may take up to a month plus until he is able to contact her again. Because of this, it is imperative that she guard her phone for the incoming call and take it when the occasion presents itself.
The Washington Post says the company apologized:
A Tennessee woman was suspended from her job for three days when she answered her cell phone on the job – to take a call from her son, a Marine stationed in Afghanistan.
The business, Crane Interiors, has since apologized and says Teresa Danford will be paid for the work she missed.