Charles Albert Poland Jr., a 66-year-old school bus driver, was shot and killed on January 29, 2013, in Midland City, Alabama, while preventing a gunman from reaching students on his bus. According to reports, a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran, Jimmy Lee Dykes, boarded the bus and demanded two boys. Poland stood in the aisle to block Dykes; during a several-minute confrontation Dykes threatened to kill him if he did not move. Students at the back of the bus opened the rear exit and escaped, but after Poland confronted the gunman Dykes shot him multiple times, killing him, then took a five-year-old from the front of the bus and held the child in an underground bunker on his property.

Neighbors described Dykes as isolated and menacing, with prior arrests and volatile behavior. The standoff ended on February 4, 2013, when law enforcement agents breached the bunker, recovered the child, and Dykes was killed. Poland was widely hailed as a hero and the Alabama Legislature later designated a stretch of U.S. 231 the Charles Chuck Albert Poland, Jr. Memorial Highway. If anyone knew Chuck Poland or has information about that day, please share what you remember.