New Jersey Six Flags park offers VIP visit to veteran denied access because of T-shirt

JACKSON, N.J. (WABC) -- An amusement park is working to make amends to a marine who was denied access to a New Jersey amusement park earlier this month - all because of his T-shirt.

Mario Alejandro planned a trip to the Six Flags Great Adventure park with his wife and children, but was turned away at the security gate because of his shirt. The shirt says, "Keep calm and return fire," and has an image of a red, white and blue M-16. Alejandro is a marine, and was part of the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"When we got through the metal detector, the guy stopped me. You can't come in with that shirt," said Alejandro. "I started laughing. 'You are joking, right?' He said, 'no, that shirt is offensive.'"

Six Flags Great Adventure spokesperson Kristin Siebeneicher said in a statement Monday that the park has apologized to Alejandro and wants to invite him back.

"Alejandro accepted our apology when we reached out to him over the weekend, and we have invited him and his family to visit our park again as special VIP guests," it said.

Alejandro, a marine who was part of the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003, said the shirt was a Father's Day gift, purchased from a non-profit group that supports the Marines. He said he refused to take it off on principle.

At first, the amusement park would not budge on its policy and although Alejandro's family went in, Mario chose not to. In a statement, Six Flags said it does not "allow guests to wear t-shirts with images of assault rifles in our parks."

"We apologize for any inconvenience we caused this guest, however we stand by our policy, which does not permit clothing with vulgar, offensive or violent language or images. our goal is to maintain a fun, safe and family-friendly environment," it said.

But on Monday the park said it was a misunderstanding. "We strive to maintain a family-friendly environment and similar to many other public venues, we have a dress code," said Alejandro. "Unfortunately, at the time, our employee did not know Mr. Alejandro's shirt was related to a military charity and we apologize to any military personnel who may have been offended by our mistake."