Originally Posted by
mozgytog
You're proud of yourself for finding and stealing completely harmless items like plastic bullets and grenade safety pins that are not actually attached to grenades? Ammo is useless without a gun to fire it from, and you're really worried about a bunch of people who could kill each other with boot laces having pocket knives?
You apparently see these declarations as some success to be proud of, but I see them as evidence that these searches are ridiculous, foolish, and not aimed at finding anything even remotely close to a credible threat.
Actually, it was more said to illustrate that properly trained airport security personnel can find hidden objects and "contraband" without the use of invasive pat-downs and a lot of machinery... In the case I was talking about, we had to remove any training ammo and/or live ammo from the soldiers, and also make sure they were "in compliance" with civilian as well as military regulations... I also said it to illustrate that if one of these soldiers had been carrying "worse" items, they too would have been found.
Just to clarify - training ammo is actually "blanks" (i.e.
no bullets, plastic or otherwise), but with considerably more gunpowder to facilitate the proper function of an automatic rifle even without the presence of a projectile to build up pressure (which works the reloading mechanism in an automatic rifle...). Besides, do you really think ammo is harmless without a gun to fire it with?? I hope you don't have kids or loved ones, if that's your take on ammunition...
Knives and other souvenirs were actually not "stolen", as you put it, they were put in sealed plastic bags, marked with the soldier's name, and sent via checked luggage, for distribution by their officers upon arrival in their home country. Anything else, "mozgytog"?
-SB-