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TSA Insanity, Troops with Automatic Weapons Searched for Nail Clippers
YOU CAN'T CALL IT ANYTHING ELSE
INDIANA NATIONAL GUARD UNIT IN TRANSIT FROM BAGRAM “SLAMMED” BY TSA
Editor’s note: Story has not been confirmed through either TSA or the National Guard and is here for amusement only. Few such stories lack dark political agenda. Most are created by corporate press. This one lacks the smell…and is, thus, here.
As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:
When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.
Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.
First, everyone was forced to get off the plane-even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to
a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.
It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.
The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by
U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo-just to inspect us again:
Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, re-inspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.
This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a
pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.
Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.
TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.
Soldier: Why?
TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.
Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a
weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.
TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t
have bullets.
Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?
TSA Guy: [awkward silence]
Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.
Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security] To top it off, the tsa demanded we all be swabbed for “explosive residue” detection. Everyone failed, [go figure, we just came home from a war zone], because we tested positive for “Gun Powder Residue”. Who the F**K is hiring these people?
This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns-but nothing that could have been used as a weapon. Can someone please tell me What the F**K happened to OUR country while we were gone?
Sgt. Mad Dog Tracy
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=65804
Posted by Veterans Today on Dec 7 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Dear Sarge,
Welcome back to stupid land. Where TSA is set up to get rich off the backs of the poor saps that have to travel through airports and the silly porno machines and minimum wage security guards while the private companies that supply the service and equipment rip us off by leveraging fear, just the same reason so many of you were sent to the sandbox.
What happened? Er, ‘Chertoff Syndrome’. Kind of like a new and improved version of Stockholm Syndrome.
CLOCKWORK ORANGE AMERIKA
Thanks, Mad Dog.
GREAT story – funny as hell, not surprising.
Question: >> Can someone please tell me What the F**K happened to OUR country while
we were gone?
Answer: Israel
Sgt. Mad Dog Tracy ,
yeah, you guys go fight the wars and
Lobbyists & Wall Street & totally sold out Congress Critters will stay here and Loot the Country and scam up endless piles of money & impoverish the rest of the Country & set up a giant idiot staffed zio-police state,
LAND OF THE FREE!
SINGULAR CITIZENSHIP AMERICANS GO TO WAR
AND NICE ‘DUALS’ WILL STAY HERE AND TRASH & LOOT THE COUNTRY!!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Donald Powers, Eva Miranda. Eva Miranda said: TSA INSANITY, TROOPS WITH AUTOMATIC WEAPONS SEARCHED FOR NAIL CLIPPERS…: TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous,… http://bit.ly/eJ9E7J [...]
This is bogus. Stand Down.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/t/TSA-Military-Nail-Clipper.htm http://blog.tsa.gov/2010/12/tsa-response-to-claim-that-nail.html
well sgt, welcome back 2 the land of 0% common sense & 100% incompetence. common sense says it’ll b awfully difficult 2 hijack a plane with just a pair of toe nail clippers. but u can’t explain that 2 any TSA official b/c they’re trained 2 not use common sense.
TSA was wrong. You went through US Customs at BAF and you do not have to go through it again. You just have to turn in your customs slip and go home. The nail clippers and Gerber tool, you were wrong you can’t have thoses.
TSA and the Custom seal. If the TSA person broke your Custom seal, then you would have to go through customs all over again.
TSA was wrong!!!!
lol !
…
it will be noticed that every step on the road to its final promulgation was marked by a fresh outbreak of revolutionary agitation.
hmmm
thats something heretofore un noticed by me
ill take your word for it
why?
bc u seem smart to me
Mr. Duff:
Speaking as a former Marine, I appreciate and thank you for your service in Vietnam.
Speaking as a former TSA screener (I resigned years ago, so put the rotten tomatoes down, folks) I hate to say it, but you’ve been bamboozled. This “Mad Dog Tracy” who alleges this story is full of it. I’ve also seen this story elsewhere on the Internet. Sometimes it’s attributed to a different name. Sometimes there is no attribution at all.
While nail clippers were briefly prohibited items after 9/11, they were NOT prohibited items when I joined the TSA in 2002, nor have they been since.
Furthermore, while TSA screeners do regularly screen uniformed military personnel at civilian checkpoints, they would not have inspected a flight of returning soldiers as “Mad Dog” describes.
This story is a silly Internet rumor that has gained traction simply because the public hates the TSA. So many people have had a bad experience with the TSA, they figure that it SOUNDS believable. After all, it’s a government bureaucracy, and we all know how incompetent government bureaucracies are, right?
Bottom line, folks. The Internet is a vast, untreated sewage disposal site for anything that anyone feels like posting at anytime. Just because the writer claims to be a member of the military, doesn’t mean they are. For all you know, that poster could be a transsexual burlesque dancer in a gay goth club in San Francisco – who also hates the TSA.
So remember folks, the next time you get on the Information Superhighway, try to imagine a warning label on your screen that reads: JUDGMENT NOT INCLUDED.
And don’t believe everything you read.
sgt…
I got this from an senior air force pilot…
sorry if it is wrong….but at least it is amusing
i have several experiences not entirely unlike these myself
one in germany
one in france
g
“sgt…
I got this from an senior air force pilot…
sorry if it is wrong….but at least it is amusing
i have several experiences not entirely unlike these myself
one in germany
one in france
g”
Mr. Duff
Apparently, you still haven’t learned to decipher the facts from the BS. With that said, it seems that you prefer to play in the mud rather than spend time with the facts. Sure doesn’t speak highly of you…
BTW, Mr. Duff, thank you for your service.
thanks
g
TSA security inspectors confiscate all those groovy Gerber, Leatherman, SOG multi-tools and then re-sell them at a 100% profit on E-Bay. The level of redundant stupidity when it comes to treating our military coming home from a combat zone by TSA employees with a GOD complex has got to be the most insulting
set of procedural stupidity in recent history.
The DoD ought to have a GS-12 rep with carte blance power to tell those TSA punks drunk on power to step aside, get the hell out of the way and help carry the bags and equipment for our returning combat zone veterans, NOT harass them with time consuming insanity for EVERY returning aircraft from our two combat zones 24/7 & 365. IF anything, TSA personnel should be ORDERED by the POTUS to do everything they can possibly can to EXTRADITE their swift passage from returning aircraft to ground transportation as part of a “WELCOME HOME – JOB WELL DONE” NATIONAL program. Any personal hand tools, nail clippers, scissors etc need to be “overlooked” since they have long since earned the distinction of
being family “heirlooms” and a legacy item by their constant use in AFGN & IRQ.
I am waiting for the day some of those TSA idiots try to pull that same stunt
on a company or battalion of battle hardened MARINES and see how far that level of
BS escalates into a melee. No bets on airport security wanting to get involved
with a bunch of enraged Marines that outnumber them 10 to 1.