An anonymous camera-wielding patron attending a retirement ceremony recently for Master Sergeant Chuck Roberson of the 749th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Travis Air Force Base in California caught a disturbing occurrence on tape when a retired airman, Master Sergeant Oscar Rodriguez (a former Honor Guard member) was “forcibly removed” from the event by three unidentified NCOs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciUN0ziZ4nQ

According to a bunch of those present, Rodriguez had been invited there by Roberson to do an honor presentation.

Rumors are now swirling that the retired airman was accosted and tossed out of the ceremony because of “bad blood” that exists between he and the current commanding officer of the squadron.

This from the John Q. Public Blog:

A public post on a Facebook page under the name “John Huffington,” apparently made by a friend of the man retiring, offered the following as it shared a copy of the video:

“This is disturbing at my friend[‘s] retirement today and the gentlemen that you are going to see in the video gets assaulted as a guest of my friend. He speaks the words of the color and strip[es] as they fold the flag. The squadron commander and Oscar have issues from years ago [and] the commander said he did not want him in the building nor saying the words to the flag. Remember he is my friends guest. So instead of letting him finish what he started saying he had his trolls assault him dragging him out of the building as you can [hear] him still saying the words to the flag. And you can [hear] Joe saying “do it do it.” Theater is full of family and guests and fellow Air Force members. This could have been handled in a much better way instead of tainting my friends retirement. This is how we treat our fellow Air Force veterans. Yes I’m pissed off.”

The blog also provided an update and a screenshot of a Facebook post regarding the incident from someone named Stephan Sila. It’s lengthy and longwinded, but the first portion of it corroborates what Mr. Huffington explained above. Not saying it’s true, but it’s certainly worth noting.

stephan sila