Originally Posted by
G_Wolf
At RDU this morning, there was a well-dressed man in a nice suit, and an official (airport) badge patrolling the area of the TDC lines. He mostly paced back and forth watching everything. But he was even occasionally helping the TSOs check documents (including mine).
I hadn't seen someone like this before, so I asked the TSO shouting instructions before the WTMD who this man was. He said "he's the manager." I asked "you mean the FSD? The STSO? The TSM? Someone else?" His reply: "No, he's just the manager. Is there a problem with that? Why do you want to know?"
Apparently my explanation of it being unusual for a TSA employee not to be in uniform wasn't satisfactory to him, since his tone became increasingly hostile, so I dropped it.
After the scanners I asked the same question to another TSO, and got a similar "he's the manager of the checkpoint, why do you want to know?"
Has anyone else seen someone like this before? Encountered anything like this before?
I've seen guys in suits, whom I presumed to be TSMs but didn't ask, at c/ps in MCO. And I don't even fly much, so it can't be all that rare to see them.
I was actually under the impression that it was a TSA or FAA regulation that a TSM must be present at all times when screening operations are being conducted.
The beligerent TSO with whom you spoke is, I would guess, simply not cognizant of the proper title for a TSM. TSM stands for Transportation Security Manager, after all, so it's not completely out of character for a TSO of limited understanding to simply know a TSM as "the Manager" rather than by the full term or its acronym. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a lot of TSOs don't know the proper terminology and simply refer to anyone in a suit as a "suit" or "boss" or "supervisor" or "upper manager" or "el jefe."