Special TSA lines for the military will solve nothing

At TSA News:

Special TSA lines for the military will solve nothing

The author, Bill Touzani, worked as a TSA agent for nine years, most if not all, from the sound of it, before the gropes were implemented. He thinks the special military lines are a bunch of hooey (and let's face it -- they're being created only because our craven politicians are trying to score points before an election year).

He talks about a lot of different stuff in this column. One excerpt:

"Injured veterans are presently escorted by Bomb Appraisal Officers (BAO) to facilitate the screening process. BAOs spend all day running back and forth with veterans through the checkpoint as they have little else to do.​

A BAO makes $80,000 a year, by the way. The same customer service duties used to be handled by the airlines at no cost to the taxpayer."​

 

That proposed legislation is just a feel-good measure. Why should the family of a servicemember be exempt? Everyone should go through the same screeneing

X-ray of belongings, hand held / walk through metal detectors, and Explosive Trace Detection / Portals. Nothing more, nothing less.

As for the author's suggestion:
Sell all the body scanners on eBay.

I don't think eBay allows anything related to pr0n.

 

+1

 

The screening process is the problem.

First off there should be one form of screening for everyone. It should be used to identify those people who need additional screening not the Electronic Strip Search or Genital Massage that is being done now.

 

The reason why the "special military lines" will cause nothing but trouble is simple. This exception only applies to military members traveling in uniform and under orders. Military orders aren't standardized at all. If you think TSA goons have trouble reading ID cards and plane tickets, then you're going to go totally bug-eyed when you watch them try to identify military orders. You can no more teach a TSA goon to read military orders than you can teach a chubby guinea pig to yell "row" at regular intervals. They're both amusing concepts, not realistic solutions to real world problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6hmgTY76M&feature=relmfu

Some tired, irritable Catholic GySgt traveling from Guam to NC with his pregnant wife and brood of 9 is going to snap, jump on a clerk's shoulders, twist off his head...

...and if you don't know how that one ends then you probably shouldn't hear it from me.

Not only will it help only a tiny minority of military travelers, but it will only help them if they're willing to tutor a TSA clerk in the fine art of recognizing and understanding military orders - every. stinking. time. they. pass. through. a. checkpoint.

If we ever have a real aircraft hi-jacking problem military members will not be flying in uniform, carrying their military IDs, special passports, orders or even cutting their hair unusually short. Then the fat will really be in the fire.

The only reason I'm in favor of special treatment by the TSA for military members and their families traveling under orders is that I'm convinced it's going to be a public relations nightmare for the TSA. (I'll be the plump lady in the second row with the large bucket of popcorn and medium grape soda.)

 

As you probably know, many Marines do not travel in uniform when under orders. Some do, but mostly young PFC's and LCpl's when reporting to a new duty station or MOS school(or other PME) from boot camp. I traveled extensively during my time in service, and more often than not, due to operational security, I was under order not to travel in uniform, particularly when leaving the US, to avoid making one more visible. Also, unlike the Army, Marines do not travel in cammies, those are not authorized for civilian travel. Lastly, orders, for the most part, are meant only for the individual under those orders, and the command and admin at the duty station, they are not meant for the eyes of some random person, which is exactly what a TSA employee is. Orders have SSN's, addresses, pay, specific instructions, names/positions of other individuals, locations, etc., all things that are PII, and some classified.

Knowing this, we can already see the problems that the TSA will impose on military personnel traveling. The idea is meant to provide some relief to military personnel and further segregate citizens, but the TSA will make a goat-rope of it and fully hassle a few even more than they would have before.

This is not a good plan, at all! I wouldn't be surprised if some TSA dolt somewhere has already tried to hassle a military member and demanded their orders to make a copy.

 

I've been out for nearly 23 years, and my husband's been retired nearly 7. What you're saying about orders and travel now is entirely consistant with how it was then. Out of concerns about identity theft I would not have shown a TSA goon my orders. If TSA clerks haven't been caught committing identity theft yet then it's only a matter of time. I don't think it's appropriate for them to be fooling around with people's wallets in the first place, and they have no business copying anyone's ID - ever.

If we really have terrorist cells and spys in the U.S. then they've got plants in the TSA at airports near major military installations. The intelligence gathering potential inherent in the TSA's assault on the 4th amendment is too tempting for our enemies to resist.

 

Wow, it's like no thought at all as has been given to this whole proposal.

 

A couple of politicians put it together, so I'm sure it was thought completely through.

 

Did I not say exactly this?!

"December 14, 2011


Are They Ignorant or Just Dressing Windows Again?


Posted by Becky Akers on December 14, 2011 10:17 AM


The Senate “unanimously” passed a bill Monday night that requires the TSA to waste our money on developing “expedited airport security screening for soldiers traveling on orders.”
But Marine Corps Times reports that this legislation won’t accomplish much. “A Marine senior noncommissioned officer, who asked not to be identified by name because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said…he almost never travels while in uniform. Most service members, unless they are traveling with their unit, don’t travel in uniform, the Marine said, unless they are a young person making their first permanent change-of-station moves. ‘If I am going on TAD for pre-deployment training or another type of place, I do not wear a uniform to the airport because it is against Marine Corps orders,’ he said.”
Yet Congressional bozos squandered time and taxes on this nonsense despite the screams of the TSA’s gate-raped victims echoing coast-to-coast."

 

Yep. Purely to score political points. "Look what we're doing for our brave young men and women at the airport (never mind that we're killing and maiming them overseas)."

 

The politicians that voted for this are dolts. There are 2 options for the ones that voted yea on this legislation.

1. The elected representative did not do any research in to the issues regarding the TSA, nor the rules, regulations, issues surrounding military personnel traveling, yet voted for this.

2. The politician knew the problems from all sides, and that further problems will result, and voted for this.

In either case, the politicians that voted for this are terrible at doing their jobs! No root cause investigation or digging at all. How about just fixing the "real" problem in the first place and avoid this waste of government time and money. I mean, we're flat broke, and this is what they spend their time doing!

 

"We're Flat broke." They are not.

 

Hey, great, let's let these guys go right on through. True patriots! (dear god, I hope I don't have to explain to new readers here that I'm being sarcastic)
8 US soldiers charged in comrade's death