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College Station soldier, airport in dispute
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
College Station soldier, airport in dispute
Man with wired jaw has cutters confiscated
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - A U.S. Army lieutenant from College Station whose jaw is wired shut from a bullet wound he suffered in Afghanistan said screeners at San Francisco International Airport denied him permission to pass through security with wire clippers used to snap open his jaw in an emergency.
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Deirdre O'Sullivan said the agency is investigating the incident.
Lt. Greg Miller, a combat medic and member of a special forces patrol and a Purple Heart recipient, was shot in Kandahar in April. The bullet passed through his jaw, severing nerves and leaving him without feeling in his mouth.
Miller said his jaw was wired shut at a hospital in Germany, and his doctor issued him a pair of wire clippers to carry at all times in case he became sick and needed to open his jaw to avoid choking.
Miller had flown to the Bay Area to visit his mother, the administrative assistant to the superintendent of a local school district.
Miller, who works for Scott & White in College Station, said officials at Easterwood Airport checked out the wire cutters before he boarded the plane to San Francisco via Dallas. Miller said they made a series of calls, then tagged the cutters with a code that security personnel could look up to see that the cutters were not a prohibited item.
But O'Sullivan said the cutters are on the list of prohibited items, as Miller discovered when he wanted to fly back home Wednesday, and found the tag didn't convince security screeners. He said San Francisco airport security personnel told him the tool, with a rounded blade less than one-inch long, was dangerous and confiscated it.
Miller complained to security screeners, the security supervisor and an American Airlines official, but said they all responded that they could not help him.
Miller then went to a pay phone and called several media outlets, telling them his story before boarding the plane. Once aboard, Miller said flight attendants told him there was nothing on board to open his jaw if he became sick.
"What I think it is, is a lack of common sense," he said.
San Francisco airport spokesman Mike McCarron said a flight attendant or pilot would have held Miller's clippers if they had known their importance - if, for instance, he had presented a doctor's note.
American Airlines spokesman John Hotard agreed and said the Transportation Security Administration, the federal agency that oversees airport security, is still working out the kinks in policy.
"The TSA is trying to get its arms around a very, very big issue here," he said. "One of the problems they're having is the uniformity of the process, and I think this is an example of that."
"We are writing a letter to Miller expressing our concern," O'Sullivan said.
http://www.theeagle.com/region/localregional/060102jawwiredshut.htm
c 2000, 2001 The Bryan/College Station Eagle
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Man with wired jaw has cutters confiscated
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - A U.S. Army lieutenant from College Station whose jaw is wired shut from a bullet wound he suffered in Afghanistan said screeners at San Francisco International Airport denied him permission to pass through security with wire clippers used to snap open his jaw in an emergency.
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Deirdre O'Sullivan said the agency is investigating the incident.
Lt. Greg Miller, a combat medic and member of a special forces patrol and a Purple Heart recipient, was shot in Kandahar in April. The bullet passed through his jaw, severing nerves and leaving him without feeling in his mouth.
Miller said his jaw was wired shut at a hospital in Germany, and his doctor issued him a pair of wire clippers to carry at all times in case he became sick and needed to open his jaw to avoid choking.
Miller had flown to the Bay Area to visit his mother, the administrative assistant to the superintendent of a local school district.
Miller, who works for Scott & White in College Station, said officials at Easterwood Airport checked out the wire cutters before he boarded the plane to San Francisco via Dallas. Miller said they made a series of calls, then tagged the cutters with a code that security personnel could look up to see that the cutters were not a prohibited item.
But O'Sullivan said the cutters are on the list of prohibited items, as Miller discovered when he wanted to fly back home Wednesday, and found the tag didn't convince security screeners. He said San Francisco airport security personnel told him the tool, with a rounded blade less than one-inch long, was dangerous and confiscated it.
Miller complained to security screeners, the security supervisor and an American Airlines official, but said they all responded that they could not help him.
Miller then went to a pay phone and called several media outlets, telling them his story before boarding the plane. Once aboard, Miller said flight attendants told him there was nothing on board to open his jaw if he became sick.
"What I think it is, is a lack of common sense," he said.
San Francisco airport spokesman Mike McCarron said a flight attendant or pilot would have held Miller's clippers if they had known their importance - if, for instance, he had presented a doctor's note.
American Airlines spokesman John Hotard agreed and said the Transportation Security Administration, the federal agency that oversees airport security, is still working out the kinks in policy.
"The TSA is trying to get its arms around a very, very big issue here," he said. "One of the problems they're having is the uniformity of the process, and I think this is an example of that."
"We are writing a letter to Miller expressing our concern," O'Sullivan said.
http://www.theeagle.com/region/localregional/060102jawwiredshut.htm
c 2000, 2001 The Bryan/College Station Eagle
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878