I'm having a hard time understanding this. SATTSO, you say that the program involves getting wounded veterans through the entire airport process, from taxi to check-in to gate or from gate to taxi. (Emphasis added.)
Originally Posted by
SATTSO
I think some of you misunderstand the original purpose of this program (not talking about how it was just expanded), and I actually think that you might agree with it.
This program was originally started by a DOD request to TSA to help wounded warriors through the airport. Too often the airport or airlines failed these men and women. They would be left at the curb by a taxi, in a wheelchair, with their luggage, not able to proceed, no one there to help them, or they would arrive at the gate, no one there with a wheelchair to escort them to get their checked bag, or bring them to a taxi or shuttle service. Some of them had family to help, some did not. Some times the airport and airlines did help, but often there was a wait, and sometimes these men and women missed their flight and had great difficulty just checking in to their flight or headed to where they needed to be after they landed.
For whatever reason, maybe supply and demand, airports only staff a limited number of sky caps, and it simply wasn't enough to meet the needs of our wounded military personal who needed help. So the DOD ask TSA to help. Which is why the "appointment" has to be made so many hours prior to the flight.
If needed, TSA will meet the person at the curb side, help check them in, escort them to the gate. We do things such as carry their luggage, push their chair, etc. Or we often meet them at their gate, help them get their luggage, and help them get a taxi/shuttle to where they need to be.
Regardless of how you feel about TSA, that is federal tax dollars at work to help provide these men and women a valuable service, and I agree with it. The airlines and airport can not always do it, so I have no problem with the federal government stepping in to do it. If you see TSA escorting any military, it is only done so by request.
I have not decided how I feel about extending it to all; I hope it will only be used by those with a medical need. But if it is available to all former military, and they ask, I will help provide it.
There is my 2 cents.
But this link you posted:
Originally Posted by
SATTSO
only talks about the screening checkpoint (emphasis added):
To ensure our military severely injured have a smooth and uneventful screening experience, TSA has partnered with the Department of Defense and have developed a process for our wounded warriors. TSA watch standards are in the Military Severely Injured Center (MSI Center) on a twenty four hour, seven days a week bases to coordinate and assist the military severely injured and their families traveling throughout our airport security checkpoints.
Here is how the process works:
Once flight arrangements are made with the airline, the severely injured service member, their families, individual service severely injured programs, and/or even military treatment facilities & VA hospitals (calling on behalf of the injured service member to be discharged) can call the Operations Center’s 24/7 toll-free number (1-888-774-1361) with details of the itinerary.
The caller will be connected to a TSA liaison team member via the Center’s care managers.
The TSA liaison person will then notify the appropriate Federal Security Directors at the involved airports to ensure that any security screening required at those affected airports will be conducted by TSA screening experts with respect and dignity in order to make the overall experience for the service member as expeditious and pleasant, as possible.
Nothing in the quoted link (or in the other link you posted) says anything about meeting them at the curb, pushing their wheelchair, collecting their luggage from the carousel, or helping them to their gate.
If you are doing this in SAT, that's great. But it's not what the TSA webpage says the program is about.
Two other points: airports and airlines around the world will provide this service, free of charge, for ANY passenger in a wheelchair (or for people with other movement disabilities, they will provide a wheelchair and this service.) I have used it myself in LAX, DEN and Australian, European and Asian airports before I had hip surgery. Over at the Disability Travel forum there are threads about experiences with wheelchair assistance. It is sometimes a bit confusing and sometimes the airport/airline is not very efficient about it. I had a wheelchair pusher at DEN who didn't speak English, as an example. But I find it hard to believe that SAT is so incompetent that wheelchair-bound veterans are regularly left stranded at the taxi, at the gate, or at check-in, to the point where TSA has to provide this service.
Secondly, if the program is (as you state) about helping wheelchair-bound veterans through the airport and not (as the website says) simply about the checkpoint, it is very odd that the program is being expanded to all veterans. And what happens at SAT to the non-veterans who are in wheelchairs; are they stranded at the taxi with their luggage, too, but TSA doesn't help them? If the program is expanded, wouldn't it make sense to include non-veteran disabled people rather than non-disabled veterans?
Something doesn't add up.