Originally Posted by
Mr. Elliott
...the best course of action when you think a TSO is out of line or retaliating against you is to stop any conversation with the TSO, immediately ask for an LEO and the FSD, don’t get involved with any of the LTSO or STSO’s that show up, they are just one or 2 pay grades up from a TSO, probably former TSO themselves and all they will do is back up the TSO, because if not, it then looks bad on them especially since they are the TSO’s immediate supervisors there....
I checked the FT glossary (and Googled), but could not find explanations for these TSA-related initials: TSO, LEO, FSD, LTSO, STSO. Would someone be able to explain what the initials mean – and how the hierarchy works? From reading FT posts I have deduced that the TSO (“transportation security officer”?) is the lowest-level character that interacts with you at the checkpoint, but I am unclear who the others are and what their roles are.