TSA screeners force honor guard to strip!

**Shipwreck** · 12-01-2007, 10:47 AM

Officials at Sea-Tac Airport are scrambling to find out why it happened.

Congressman Norm Dicks is working to see that it never happens again.

My commentary on how TSA screeners handled two Fort Lewis soldiers escorting the body of a combat colleague home for burial has outraged a lot of people.

Brief recap: Escorted to the tarmac where an honor guard waited, the soldiers stood at attention as the casket was placed on the plane.

A uniformed police officer then accompanied them to the screening area where their combat medals and ribbons helped set off the metal detectors.

They showed their military ID.

The police officer showed his ID.

Told to put down the American flag they were carrying, a TSA screener then had the soldiers strip to their tee shirts, pants and socks in full view of everyone in line.

More than anything else, it was that public spectacle and the soldier's humiliation that I find most disturbing, most disrespectful and most offensive.

It was the complete absence of any common sense from TSA, and the disregard shown to those men, that provoked such strong reactions.

I'm going to continue to follow this story, which means I'll continue to update you up on what happens.

http://www.komotv.com/news/11973956.html

**Charlie** · 12-01-2007, 01:44 PM

Last airport I visited was the San Antonio airport and I'll tell you the TSA employees I saw, for the most part, looked like those people that would be considered overpaid if they did it for free! I personally feel a job that important should require more screening, training, and higher pay. I'm sure there are some qualified, good folks working for TSA, I just haven't been fortunate enough to find them yet. I'm flying out of Dallas to Denver in a couple of weeks so I'll be able to make some more observations......hopefully with positive results. We'll see.

**SuckLead** · 12-01-2007, 10:03 PM

I haven't been in an airport in years, and I am glad of it. I was flying regularly at one point and some of the things I saw done by screeners was just insane. This is one of them.

**Mike Barham** · 12-01-2007, 10:23 PM

Huh. When I flew home for leave, I was "fast tracked" through most of the security gates. Of course I was in ACUs, not Class As with all the medals.

But jeez, did they crack open the casket and look inside, too?

**super64** · 12-02-2007, 10:23 PM

I hope they didn't. How disrespectful would that be

**Lucky13** · 12-02-2007, 11:45 PM

Originally Posted by Charlie

.....the TSA employees I saw, for the most part, looked like those people that would be considered overpaid if they did it for free! I personally feel a job that important should require more screening, training, and higher pay.

You are absolutely right. Due to my profession, I have worked in and around airports for the last 13 years. TSA needs better people, but, better people with better training means higher pay, which in turn translates into higher cost, which eventually gets passed on to the consumer.

Here is what one TSO had to say, "I used to go to a copy shop with a sign that said, "Fast, cheap and good—pick two." It seems a little like the trade-off for airline security: convenience at the gate versus cost versus good security. How do you achieve a balance?"

I would not mind the wait to go through security or higher costs to travel if I felt like the people working the gates new what they were doing. This whole situation reminds me of something my wife likes to say, "Common sense, is not so common".

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