TSA horror story of the week
Lots of folks have e-mailed me Seattle talker Ken Schram’s story, “Someone should be fired,” about Fort Lewis soldiers serving in an honor guard getting hassled by TSA while escorting the remains of a colleague home to Virginia last month:
I don’t think things can get more screwed up with airport security.
This isn’t about how investigators were able to smuggle liquid explosives and detonators past TSA screeners earlier this year.
It’s about the atrocious treatment endured by some Fort Lewis soldiers who were escorting the remains of a colleague home to Virginia earlier this month.
Brief background: On the tarmac, an honor guard had been formed by Port of Seattle Police, airport fire and rescue and military personnel as the soldier’s body was placed on the plane.
A police officer then took the escort soldiers up to security.
The TSA screener checked everyone’s ID, including the police officer, and then had the soldiers go through the metal detectors.
Their combat ribbons and medals set off the alarms.
So what does the TSA screener do?
He has the soldiers strip off their uniforms - in front of everyone - down to their tee shirts, pants and socks.
Will someone please tell me what the hell is wrong with these people?
You know I’ve reported plenty on TSA bungles, but before calling on anyone to get fired, I’d like to hear more about the incident. If any of you know more, drop a note with further details.
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I guess using the wand was too much trouble?
I could see taking off their coats, possibly, because that’s where all those items are and then going back through the metal detectors. Anything more is overkill and undignified.
I will hold back posting a comment on this until MM can get more information … however … it does strike me as amazingly coincidental that we are in Washington state again …
first the protests in Olympia and now this at the Seattle airport …
makes one go “hmmmmmm??” at the very least
TSA= those stupid a-holes??
The MSM likes to ask “are we safer now then on 9/11?”
I think we are safer because the enemy chooses not to attack before an election… we will be less safe immediately after.
Seattle and Olympia, Washington-HUM.
The supervisor of the TSA unit should be fired. Fed.(our) money should be withheld from these cities until a FULL investigation is performed. Maybe the two cities are really in Canada - the officials there surely act like it.
Just exactly how far can these people get their heads up their butt? Criminy.
So TSA made them go through screening, and that’s undignified? Metal sets off a metal detector, and all alarms have to be cleared. Uniformed military, especially in those situations, should be exempt. But they’re not, and that’s not TSA’s fault. That’s the law.
As for using the wand, that probably would have taken longer.
You know, I really hate being the person that has to defend the TSA in these threads. It’s a dysfunctional organization, to say the least. They hire too many idiots and most of them in positions of power. But most of the regulations are sound (outside of the idiotic liquid ban).
I hesitate to say it, but treat people the way you want to be treated. More and more I realize that the people who have a problem with the TSA are the people that forget this.
Must be where the Oakland guys were transfered.
I should clarify, as I am going to be away from the computer for a while, that I’m not talking about the military guys when I say “treat people the way you want to be treated.” I’m talking about the people that post here and on other blogs.
There are some genuinely nasty people that work for the TSA. I know because I work with some of them. But most people I work with are nice people who are just trying to make a living. But, like most people, they don’t make the rules they work under. They also know how stupid some of them are and don’t need to be constantly reminded of it in a nasty tone. Unless you think that constantly being berated by passengers is a motivating factor, try treating the TSA folks with a modicum of respect.
Wow! You can’t really blame the TSA for being so thorough, can you? I mean, after all, 9/11 was an inside job, right? Just look at how many US soldiers have hijacked flights and flown them in to skyscrapers in the past.
Just being careful, that’s all.
I think President Bush should sign an Executive Order, making it mandatory that all TSA employees, ALL of them, have IQ tests prior to employment, and score a minimum of 110 points. Those scoring below 100 points should be considered HUA, and unable to see the light, thus unfit for hire.
I wonder if this same TSA screener would demand that a chadri-clad muslim remove her burqa if she set off the metal detector?
Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask…are TSA screeners doing the jobs that intelligent Americans won’t do?
(Tongue in cheek, for you lib’s out there.)
Can we do the same for all the candidates?
This type of thing is not news. A friend of ours had this happen to him in 2005 when he took remains home to KS. He flew from BWI after driving to DE to and he got stopped at BWI. He also had to put the remains through the x-ray machine as well. He complained and wrote to O’Reilly but nothing was picked up on it.
BTW last year when my husband went back to Iraq in mid-November after his R & R they complained about the “explosive residue” on his boots and almost didn’t let him into the terminal. He said that was fine, call the General at Schofield.
TSA sucks but Bush won’t do anything about it.
ajmontana said:
We already do that AJ! At least that’s the reason I watch the debates. They have to be able to pass the “stink” test.
A better question would be, Can we do the same for the voting populations that put these stooges in office?
The site komotv.com has a couple of reports on the incident, including one by the local blowhard Ken Schramm — who likes to put on airs of being a conservative on some issues. He’s not, but he plays one on occasion on TV. Like a stopped clock he is right a couple of times a day, and on this is one of them.
As for Washington, it is a one-party state: the senators, vast majority of congress-creeps, media, bureaucracy, judiciary, school teachers, are all left-liberals and insufferably smug and I dare say ruthless about it.
Everything is the environment, gender, or race– white men are hated — they are, for example, the only group that qualifies for capitol punishment.
The King county (the most populace county) democrat machine is utterly corrupt with power. Thankfully, the left-liberal establishment is also utterly incompetent — the one fact btw that prevents the jerks from fulfilling their dream — complete property, income, and gun confiscation.
Amusingly, the liberal establishment with all its money and power is utterly unable, year in, year out, to create a coherent transportation program. It will not and cannot be done by these clowns. This is where the country is heading.
@terrig,
My son got the full TSA “check” at BWI when he arrived from Afghanistan — right off the battlefield still in his dirty BDUs! The good thing that happened is that the other passengers going through security as this happened were all booing the TSA people and making snide comments to them. Regardless, my son says BWI is by far the best airport he’s gone through in uniform because there seems to be no end of people either buying drinks or giving the troops money for drinks. My son said he eventually had to start turning down offers because he was getting plastered!
After the Thanksgiving indignity of watching Grandma, my wife and my 12-year-old daughter go thru the extra “wand and remove clothes” routine, I’d believe just about anything. I believe they “inspect” on perceived cooperative indications. If you look like you’ll jump when they bark, they bark.
I, on the other hand, offered a distinctly unnatural scowl throughout the shoes/objects/scanner review and nobody came close to asking more of me - even after a verbal exchange with an X-ray machine idiot who gave me specific instructions as my goods went in, then attempted to scold me as they came out the other side. I told him his instructions were just like lousy computer code - crap in, crap out.
Both TSA and airline personnel don’t even read the information on an ID card, nor do they verify if you look like the photo on the card. Once they spot the name and it’s similar to your boarding pass, you’re through. I’m sure a fake ID would do just fine.
We did see the full-Burqa on display at LAX. Just how you identify someone via eye-slit remains a mystery to me.
You might have just described the TSA employee.
There are many items on a military uniform that will set off the metal detectors in an airport and you think the TSA screener would have the sense to have the soldiers open their service jackets and use their metal detector wands. Worse yet some of these young warriors could also be carrying around a piece or two of shrapnel from their own close calls while serving in hostile areas. It will be interesting to hear what TSA has to say about this incident somehow I believe the word “incompetent” will be used in the finally findings, but I have been wrong before.
Too bad they weren’t celebrities, cause they would’ve been whisked thru, no problem.
Two relevant items from the TSA web site.
Transporting the Deceased and Accomodations for U.S. Military Personnel
Just surprised they couldn’t open up a private lane to the side and clear everyone quietly. Not sure what that airport looks like.
And TJ Green, stop being an idiot and stop advising other people how to get in trouble. If you believe there is a real terrorist threat then don’t advise people to look like trouble or offer a fake ID to the people looking for terrorists.
The Ugly American
You’d prefer they have her wait on a line with a gaggle of gawkers and such creating a security problem, jamming up the checkpoint and presenting a nice juicy target? Security just wants to get someone like that through and out of there, same as they want with you. You note she did remove her shoes, she was inspected and she did not alarm.
I remember not that long ago jumping from the cab at the curb, running to ticketing, running DIRECTLY to the gate and on the plane 1 minute before the door closes. I think of that every time I put my young son on a plane to visit his mom at the holidays. I appreciate the thoroughness of TSA in preventing someone who wants to take 200+ innocent with him because he believes they are worthy of a horrible death. Our lives are changed for the foreseeable future.
I wonder if the screener went through the Seattle school system.
Wow a soldier wearing a dress uniform, with medal’s on it, amazing. Seem’s like a common sense is’nt common moment.
Ethical.
Thanks to Shivv for reminding us that most of the TSA people are just folks trying to do a job. They do have to enforce rules that seems pretty silly, and having to put up with people growling at them all day must get pretty wearing.
While MM is getting more information, we should keep in mind that there are so many people looking at the screeners that they probably have no leeway for common sense. Using the wand to see if anything beeped away from the medals and uniform items would have been the logical way to handle this, and I hope that the rules are written in a more military-friendly manner. It’s probably the supervisors who need to be publicly admonished.
(The policy on the link that Lifeofthemind provided seems pretty limited to only one type of uniform, and doesn’t really give anyone any leeway, except for being able to keep their shoes/boots on unless they set something off.)
I should add that ideally the servicemen would have been allowed to just go through with all the support they had from the local police, etc..
My blood pressure just spiked about 50 points. Please post the updates as soon as you can Michelle. If this is as bad as it sounds swift, decisive action must be taken. Maybe, just maybe our good for nothing, lazy congress will have a REAL issue to investigate for a change.
I agree that the rules sometimes are not really applicable in the real world. I also agree that most of the TSA folks are good people doing a dificult job.
But, when I applied to TSA as a retired police officer, I wasn’t allowed to even take the test because they had hired most of the pre-TSA screeners.
I too will wait for more information before making a judgement.
Don Miguel, my husband went through there when he came home on emergency leave after the birth of our daughter. He said that flying through there upon his return was great and that like you said the fellow passengers couldn’t be nicer. It was Honolulu Intl. (we lived in HI until March of this year) where they got on him about the residue on his boots.
I’ve not had good experiences with TSA with the exception of our leaving HI in March. For me, Dallas has been the worst but that’s another story for another day. I do feel though that the military should not be subject to such scrutiny especially when on a mission such as these guys were but that’s my opinion and I’m sure there are plenty who think it’s wrong.
I can tell you that I now own two bras that do not have
underwires. These are my “flight” bras because an
underwired one caused me to be searched while the
turban wearing man behind me laughed his head off.
I was wearing mules in order to take my shoes off and
when the detector went off, I asked for the wand but
the woman either could not speak English or would
not.
I feel so sorry for the soldiers and it infuriated me when I first read it but the screener probably doesn’t have any leeway or not enough intelligence
to think of an alternative.
Like an elderly woman we know that is in a wheel
chair told a screener, after being told to stand up,
“son, if I could stand up, I wouldn’t be in this chair.”
He continued to insist for over 5 minutes, until a
supervisor showed up after being alerted to the
situation by another passenger.
Whle flying for Continental Airlines out of Guam, I had many chances to see TSA foolishness at a high level. We fly a number of Iwo Jima vets, history types, tour guides and other assorted military and historical types to an annual Iwo Jima memorial sevice on Iwo Jima. Vets in wheel chairs were required to get up and walk throught the metal detectors,shoes and belts off, people holding them up. I was furious. This is a completely out of control,bureaucratic, pc organization whose main aim in life is to “collect items” as opposed to stopping people who are threats.
Also, if CAIR and their ilk are going to sue crews, airline employees and passengers for dealing with suspicious situations and people, then airports better stop playing that stupid recording telling you to report suspicious activities. This whole program is ridiculous,,,they better be profiling, if not,,,,its a waste.
This is ridiculous.Preclearance should have been secured with the airport for the honor guard to avoid this. Apart from this, these were Class A wearing honor guard military being escorted by law enforcement personnel. The extent to which these screeners went to guarantee that these men and possibly women were not about to hijack an airplane was, indeed, extreme and beyond un-necessary to put it mildly. At the very least, supervisory staff should have been called and these men permitted through.
I would venture to say, not one person, save for the nastiest,, dirtiest, Sheehan supporter or Kucinich worker would have said anything, let alone thought twice about it. The odds of these people causing a problem, let alone a hijacking were pretty much in the negative range. I challenge anyone to make an argument…a justifyable, makes sense argument beyond, “Hey, if I have to, they have to” argument as to why this had to happen at all.
At the very, utmost very lease, open the belt and tunic, stand with arms at a 45 and wand each person and do a visual. That should have been the very extent of it. Any more was an embarrassment and nothing more than what was meant to be an embarrassment of each member of the honor guard. Period.
Yes.
I think the key words here were Honor Guard.
It seems like a lot of the people up there in Lib-eria have forgotten the meaning of the word honor and they prove it every day!
It strikes me as quite ironic that they choose to live in a state named after George Washington, a president who fought tyranny and helped establish this great country.
Just a few things. Baldeagle, no one has HAS to get out of a wheelchair. It’s easier on the passenger, because if you have no other reason to alarm (fake joints, etc.)it saves them from having to get patted down (and obviously saves the TSA from assigning someone to do the pat down). If you’re unwilling or unable to get out of the chair, you are accommodated.
As for whether or not they were a threat, I would say that while I agree that they should have been let through, to say that it’s not possible for them to be a threat is a wrong assumption. Unless you’ve forgotten about the Hezbollah agent working for the CIA or the Muslim soldier that threw a grenade into a tent in Kuwait.
As for just wanding them and sending them on their way, it’s a little more complicated than that. While it would be nice to be trusting and assume that the only thing alarming is their medals (or in other cases their fake joints), it doesn’t work that way. They would have to go through the full wanding procedure, which is much slower than removing your jacket, putting it through the x-ray, and walking through again.
As for what Kevin K. said about having little leeway is pretty much on the mark, depending on the circumstance. No one I work with is going to take away a 4 oz. liquid for being over 3.4 oz., but that’s about the extent of the leniency we can offer. With all of the spot checks done on a regular basis, you never know who you’re dealing with.
My husband just asked why they weren’t precleared
through..like i have the answer to that. Seems that
someone must have dropped the ball. Perhaps now
that they know what happens on that side of the
country, the military will make some changes, though
it shouldn’t have to come to that.
Just how many federal agencies authorize their employees to carry firearms aboard commercial flights? The FDIC? The GAO? The Library of Congress?
And just how many of these agencies conduct the kind of background check required for an NCO? I’ll bet none of them do.
I don’t care who makes or enforces the rules. The TSA is treating, or is made to treat, our service members like something that came out of the south end of a dog while gun toting librarians get a pass at the checkpoint.
There’s a systemic problem in society today that causes almost all of these issues. We’ve legislated and ruled and regulated common sense out of the equation.
Teachers teach to the test. Doctors treat by the book. Judges impose mandatory sentences. Employers hire to fill quotas. TSA screeners strip search servicemen, and so on.
All because we’re afraid to let anyone use their heads, combined with a lot of people who are happier not having to.
Thanks Shivv for presenting that point of view.
One question I’d ask the commenters here. What would we be saying if the story was this? “TSA investigators successfuly smuggled weapons and exploses past screeners by posing as servicemen.”
All of which, btw, is to say that MM is right. Obviously things shouldn’t have happened as they did, but we need more info before placing blame or calling for consequences.
TSA=Treacherously Stupid Ass#$)#!
I remember when we were coming back to the States after 4 years in Germany. We were going back on a MAC flight out of Rhein-Main Air Base. My dad was required to fly in his Class A’s. At that point in time, he’d been in the Army for about 18 years. I can’t recall if we were early, the departure was delayed or what, but Daddy had left the secure area for some reason. When he was coming back through, whoever was running the metal detector thought it would be funny to turn up the sensitivity, since my dad had a few rows of ribbons. I know times have changed since then. But this is ridiculous - these soldiers should not have been made to strip down to their skivvies to clear security. Make them take off their jackets, maybe their belts to be X-rayed, and have them go through the metal detector again. This is not rocket science, people!
I recently flew from LAX to SEA on Alaska Airlines. It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. At LAX we couldn’t “check” our bags, but instead had to leave them in an unsecured location in front of an X-ray machine where TSA was in charge. I stayed until I saw my bags go through the machine. We watched with our jaws on the floor as the TSA employee (white shirt, TSA on back) took the bags off the conveyor belt and tossed them like he was training for the Olympics hammer throw. Even with boxes marked fragile. All bags, not just ours. This guy knew he was being watched, and many people were yelling at him. He just smiled and kept throwing the bags anyway.
The bags were then distributed, some down a chute, and some placed on a cart that was wheeled back through the main unsecured location/terminal.
We then went through the gate security. In a total of about 75 feet, with no way in/out of the line, we needed to show our boarding pass and ID to FIVE different persons.
I bet if they were all Middle Eastern looking males between the ages of 16 and 35 they would have breezed right through with no questions asked. Wouldn’t want to be accused of racial profiling, after all.
This happened to my unit last year.Before we left the theater our bags were screened by dogs and detectors as we were.200 troops on a plane for 18-20 hours with our only goal to get home and when we land in the states its boots off and detectors and those smirk looks from TSA.If I had been a bomber it would have went off there,not on a plane of GI’s.
Quick phrase:
Tar and feather.
Just another great reason to stay the heck off airplanes and see America from the comfort of your own foreign-made, American-assembled luxury, gas-guzzling automobile.
Our men and women in uniform deserve much better treatment.
I can picture terrorists wearing a U.S. military uniform and trying to slip something past security, but an honor guard with a police escort?
I blame these TSA inefficiencies on the good for nothing democraps in our congress who insisted that TSA employees be members of a “union”. After all, in my opinion, nothing is more inefficient than modern union labor. Are there good members of unions? Absolutely. Do they have a voice? Heck no.
Stop the military, stop gramma, stop jr., let the Middle Easterner thhrough. Gotta keep sensitive.
I’m not being cynical today, am I?
Who attacked us? Were they citizens of the United States? So, who should we be looking for? Non-Citizens, for the most part, right? Do we have a HUGE illegal alien problem in the United States? YES! So, why not roll both problems into one and solve it?
SOLUTION: Station Border Patrol and ICE agents along with CBP Officers at ALL major airports….They will work at the metal detectors at the security checkpoints (the exact same way as they did after 9/11, yet, this time, we do not allow the INS upper management to ORDER them not to arrest illegals…even from Iran…)
The Agents will ask EVERYONE who passes or wishes to pass the same exact question…..So, no profiling…..No Imam lawsuits….
“What country were you born in and what RIGHT do you have TO BE IN and REMAIN in the United States LEGALLY?”
This will allow them to catch all those here as overstays, here illegally because they entered illegally and to find those who are out of status…..LIKE MOST OF THE 9/11 HIJACKERS were….have Immigration Judges at the airport, if they are to be deported, trade their ticket in for one to their home country, put them on the plane, and C-ya!
This would make air travel safer, take a huge burden off the TSA and will shut down the use of air by all illegal aliens….Now, tie that into a system that allows the DHS to issue federal warrants for ALL illegal aliens, all Non-Immigrant visitors the very minute their visa expires….So, local police can discover them on traffic stops…when they run a record check on the driver/occupants….
Stop the PC madness…..
That pretty much sums up the situation.
There is a lot more that could be said, but 90% of it could be reduced to that statement.
Hate to tell you Zorro, but the TSA is not unionized.
Like I said in my first post, I hate being in the position to defend the TSA despite my employment with them. As an organization it can only be considered dysfunctional.
My concern is that too many people take out their frustration on the rank and file who are just trying to do a job and make a living. If you have a problem with how things are done, go higher. Call and write to your Congressional representatives. Call DHS, and TSA Head Kip Hawley in particular.
Shivv, you are correct. I thought the democraps in the congress prevailed.
As for contacting our members of congress, I received a response this morning from an aid to Congressman Jason Altmire (D-PA), usually a champion of veterans affairs, the response was that if you quote something from Michelle Malkin do not expect the congressman to answer. I guess democrap congressmen are only concerned with issues from democrap citizens. Not conservatives or republicans.
“…capitol punishment.”
Would that be as in being forced to continue living there… in the capitol?
Or were you referring to capital punishment, as in death penalty?
I’m a trainer and instructor for a private contractor that works under TSA at a major airport. People are allowed two passes through the walk-through metal detector.
It is indeed easier to take the jacket and whatever else off than be hand wanded. We have a lot of rules that plain don’t make sense. We have an SOP that is overwritten to the extreme and a lot of the directives we get are always to be “respectful” of other cultures and religions yet we don’t get those type of directives with service men.
We’re in a catch 22 really. If we “go easy” on service men in uniform or grandmas, and then we fail internal covert tests using people in these areas then we get raked over the coals. If we don’t go easy on them, we’re raked over the coals.
Frankly, when it comes to a government bureaucracy like this we’re not allowed to use much common sense. And we’re always looking over our shoulders because we are constantly being tested. Add to the fact that you have some people working for TSA that if you give them just the slight bit of power, it goes to their heads and abuse it.
It’s not an easy job and a lot of TSOs get burned out. I once worked a shift on the floor that I was literally cussed and sworn at SIX times on SIX separate occasions. By the time the last two came around I just stood there and took it. Yes, I could have called for a supervisor but what would have been the point? The people were just upset about the rules.
Look at it this way: I’m a speed demon on the road. When I’m on the freeway I generally go a minimum of 80mph. I think the 65mph speed limit is stupid. But the rule is that if I get caught going that 80mph I’m going to get pulled over and get a speeding ticket. Do I think it’s stupid and the fine exorbitant? Yes! But those are the rules.
And we’re never going to confiscate anything from you. We don’t have that authority. You always have the option of either abandoning it or taking it out to the unsecured area and doing with it whatever you so choose, unless of course it’s something such as a firearm. In that circumstance, the law enforcement will take over and decide what to do.
This is why I will never fly on another commercial airliner, ever.
Comment #18, 22 and 58 Follow-Up:
A happy-face grin is not required. I recommend the classic “don’t even think about it” stare - the antithesis of the “It’s a Small World After All” Disney Happy Tourist face.
Regarding fake IDs, until there is some sort of verification process the notion of “real” vs. “fake” is illusory; current procedures offer no security.
At two airports women in my party were ordered to remove coats, sweaters or sweatshirts before the FIRST pass through the walk-thru metal detectors. My modest daughter had to remove both coat and sweatshirt and was embarrassed to strip to her T-shirt. My wife was also pulled aside and required to remove multiple layers of clothing. I will never again allow my family to be split up into multiple “inspection” lines again in this fashion. It is clear to me that TSA takes full advantage of people who appear to be malleable.
Just following orders?
Where have I heard that before?
Scorn for sheeple aside, there’s something horribly wrong with a system that doesn’t allow the “rank and file” to call in higher-ups who are empowered to make decisions when faced with a delicate situation, like an honor guard escorting a fallen comrade on his fallen journey.
Shivv: Ever heard of common sense? Apparently neither has the TSA.