Originally Posted by
emma dog
Paperwork should be the same regardless of rank. The leave paperwork from OIF looked different than the usual leave paperwork and in fact looked much more like TDY orders and inlcuded a line for baggae allowance since the flight from KWI to BWI was a military charter (and restricted weight).
That was 2003. Again, things change.
Without having seen it, it sounds like the baggage allowance was for the military charter to point of entry, and that the service member is on their own for the rest of the journey. The paperwork would cover travel from duty station to point of entry, and there would be no travel orders from point of entry to desired destination.
Of course, there is no guarantee that the AAgent could read military orders (it is a skill that I only developed over time), so if he had shown the orders he might have gotten the baggage exception. But apparently, he didn't show them.