Just stop and think for one second.
 

I've been lurking here for a couple days; the reason being is that I was thinking of pursuing employment with TSA. I own a small internet business, and as we all know, things have been really bad lately with our economy. I am prior Military and also a former Correctional Officer so I thought I would look into some type of government Security or Law Enforcement job.

After reading comments in the thread about the Grenade, I have decided to chime in. It amazes me how people can complain about the TSA clearing them away from a potential explosive!! If in fact that item was a live Grenade, and the TSA decided to open the item it was in causing it to detonate because it was rigged; man would all you people be going nuts!!!!! What if your wife and children were in the line at that check point? And for all you experts who comment on things you don’t know anything about; please stop, it really makes you look bad. I have been around and have had many different types of Grenades on my person during my Military enlistment; and I can tell you that if I had seen that grenade in the package, I would have cleared the area. Why would someone have any type of Grenade in their luggage; ether for a souvenir or to cause harm. A lot of the souvenir grenades are made from real grenades that have had their explosive material removed; actually most of them are made from Practice Grenades that have a blue colored spoon on them. The practice is the same as a real grenade, it just has a small charge similar to a fire cracker in them; and again is usually colored blue on the spoon. That all being said; if I had intentions of bringing a live Grenade on a plane, I would paint the dam thing blue, or Gold, and even put it on a piece of wood with a sign that reads “Complaint Department, please take a number” and have the number hanging on the pin. That way it would appear to be “FAKE!” (There is a novelty that is sold like this) They did their job and took the precaution; nobody was hurt and all is good.

Now that you read the part about the Grenade on the piece of wood; would you really want a screener to let it go on the Airplane without checking it out further? How would you feel sitting in your seat on the plane after reading this, and then seeing a screener let the above mentioned Grenade go through because he used his common sense and figured it was just a prop?

You complain and complain about the TSA and how they don’t let you bring this or that on the plane; you know what you can and can’t bring, so don’t bring it? Are you going to die without your shampoo or water on the plane??? I have been to the airport many times; not as much as most of you but I understand what I have to do and never have a problem. It’s funny to see that the people who are complaining the most, seem to be the same group.

After being on this site for the last couple days I have decided not to pursue a career with TSA for a number of reasons. One is because of the shear hatred that everyone has for a TSO. I have to hand it to you guys from the TSA that are on this board; you really have a tough job. You all seem to be very educated and professional; that brings up another reason that I will not be pursuing the TSA. Although there are many professional people working for the TSA, there are also those who are not. I have seen them first hand and it sickens me. My view is that if you are going to wear a uniform, you better dam well wear it with pride, and have it squared away. I see some of these guys that look like they sleep in their uniforms. I also can’t stand to see the way some of them carry themselves. Until the TSA can weed these *hitbags out, the TSA will never get any respect, and I can’t work for an organization that is looked upon the way the TSA is.

To the men and women that work for the TSA on this board, I thank you for your professionalism!!! To the other people; lighten up on the TSO’S, not all of them are bad. Don’t label them all as clowns and losers, because some of them may in fact have seen and done more then you will ever know. And to the ones that have chips on their shoulders, and look like a bag of *hit, put a complaint in on them; just hope they don’t ask you to “take a number”;)

Semper Fi,

Bob

I also must add that I feel the TSA implements a lot of ridiculous procedures. The whole organization in my opinion needs to be revamped. It is really sad to see some people being overly screened when they don’t need to be. And sometimes it’s the TSO with a chip on his shoulder; but probably most of the time it’s the TSA’S protocol that the TSO has to follow or he will be FIRED.

Semper Fi,

Bob

Bob:
Welcome to FT & hope you will continue to post here.Great decision in deciding not to join the TSA.

Welcome to FT.

So where do you draw the line for yourself on what's OK for TSA to do? You're not going to die if TSA makes you fly naked or in a hospital gown; would that be OK?

Would you be OK if TSA said you could have no carry-on luggage at all? My employer's policies forbid me from checking a laptop as luggage (no idea what happened to anyone who got caught at LHR during the initial panic over the liquids threat, though I suspect a lot took trains to mainland Europe and flew from there), so I guess we couldn't work and travel any more. TSA refuses to take responsibility for valuables in checked luggage, so I guess that means no jewelry or high-end clothes? What if TSA decided to ban cell phones?

My middle-aged parents and elderly grandparents aren't going to die from having to take their shoes off at the checkpoint, but it's still physically difficult for them, humiliating for them, and an activity that increases their risk of an injury-causing fall. Some people choose not to fly because of that hassle. Are you OK with that?

Are you OK with TSOs using a virtual strip machine on you, or your daughter, knowing that they can find a way to save the image in spite of TSA's claims (think cell-phone camera for a crude solution) and post it on the internet?

Are you OK with DHS/TSA keeping a secret blacklist of innocent Americans who have been convicted of no crime who cannot fly but yet have no effective means of due process or redress?

Where do you draw the line? TSA seems to think it can do anything and everything to passengers if it can remotely connect it to some perceived improvement in security even if it flies in the face of the Bill of Rights, common sense, and human decency. I think they've gone way to far and need to be reigned in.

I don't think the phrases "free country" or "home of the brave" apply to a place where we have to present papers to request permission to travel from the government (ID check and no-fly list) and where our government is afraid of toothpaste and bottled water but unwilling to deploy technological solutions or risk management to deal with that fear. I appreciate your service, and the service of my father and grandfathers, but I'm not at all convinced we do that service honor with the direction the surveillance-state and security-state are heading.

Thanks for the welcome Coachrosey and Studentff.

Studentff; all of your points are well made and I agree with you. If you read my second post you will see that I indeed feel that there are many problems with the way the TSA is run.

I hope that this does not take away from the point I was trying to make in my first post.

Semper Fi,

Bob

They have a lot of reasons to complain, 90% of them valid. TSA's SOPs are a joke and there has been no effort to improve them while keeping the same level of safety. The way I can relate with FTers is limited to a couple of months which I did heavy air travel, so yes, you may know how it works and go through security every time like an expert, but you're financing an agency that has so many flaws and you see nothing being done to improve it.

Please understand; I get it that TSA has a lot of procedures implemented that need to be changed. I get it that a lot of their SOP is ridiculous. Some people on here are complaining about things that are trivial, and some of the complaints are ignorant, that is the point I was trying to make. I was also trying to point out that not all of the TSO’s are bad.

And by no means do I claim to be an expert traveler. Studentff made a lot of great points and I agree with all of them; they are things that should be complained about; my post was to have people think about what they are complaining about before they do.

Welcome to Flyertalk. :)

I second the ^ on deciding against working for the Terrorism Support Agency. Good decision.

Former correctional officer - prison guard? The last thing the TSA needs are more former prison guards and former police officers. That's not the mission of the organization.

I'd look into going back to prison guard, since we keep incarcerating more and more prisoners. Here in CA, prisons are hiring.

IMO, part of the problem is that some dingus thought early on that the TSA needed former Special Forces and retired Marines and washed-out cops and maybe even washed-out prison guards. So that's what they got. And that's why the TSA is such a screwed up organization from top to bottom.

What the TSA needed were people with experience in dealing politely with non-criminals, not people well-versed in arresting or killing or controlling people, like cops, military heroes or prison guards.

You're right - they're not all clowns and losers. But there are far too many clowns and losers, from the top all the way to the bottom.

Again, congratulations on having enough self-respect to avoid that agency.

Re: the grenade, I agree that these cases need to be taken seriously and that evacuations are sometimes, maybe even often, warranted.

But I do think there are cases where TSA could ask the passenger/owner a few questions and resolve the alarm without calling in the bomb squad an evacuation.

In a lot of cases, simply asking the passenger a question like "do you have anything that might resemble a grenade" and then evaluating the response alongside the totality of the situation (e.g., 85-year-old passenger, sheepishly admits he forgot his souvenir, etc.) would help. If TSA trusts their vaunted "behavior detection officers," (BDOs) then they should use the BDOs to evaluate responses in these cases. If the BDOs are worth their cost, they should be able to tell the difference between a sheepish souvenir carrier and a nervous/malicious terrorist in the vast majority of cases.

There have been too many cases where a power supply wrapped in some cables, or a slightly unusual electronic device, have resulted in TSA freakouts that probably could have been avoided with a simple conversation.
See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=534358 for an example and http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=515053 for another.

Some of these incidents have resulted in serious property loss for the passenger with no compensation from TSA or other agencies. See:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=368482
and
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4991865

FWAAA; I appreciate your comments.

I can tell you this; as stated, I was a former Correctional Officer and Marine, you are insinuating that because of that service, I would treat people unfairly and I take offense to that. Professional former Marines with common sense are exactly what the TSA needs. I guarantee that the TSO’s that you come in contact with that treat you with respect were probably prior Military; most of those guys know their place with the TSA; they’ve done, and I use the word you used, Hero stuff already, and probably didn’t join the TSA to boost their ego.

Semper Fi,

Bob

Taking my shoes off in Denver when I was under a doctor's care for an excruciating back pain issue didn't kill me, but it aggravated a situation that caused increaed pain for days after. The fact that I came armed with my prescription pain pills, X-rays on a CD that the hospital E-R I had to go to while on the trip gave me, and a doctor's instructions that I avoid extreme bending and stretching for two weeks meant nothing to them, I was going to take them off and put them back on. Then they told me I needed to clear the chair so others could use it and told me I was making a scene by wincing in that much pain.

Now...that didn't kill me certainly, but was it okay with me? Absolutely NOT. My regular doctor was just dumbfounded that the TSA would ask someone obviously in severe pain and with documentation that showed he was under a doctor's care would treat someone like that.

--PP

Welcome to FT! This probably could have been put in the other thread, but we'll give you a pass because you're a newbie. :D

I don't think the objection was the fact that the TSO pulled the person aside to check out the grenade. He did the right thing. But shutting down the terminal? That went too far. They could have easily run the ETA or pulled the passenger aside. We all support some level of safety at the airport. But we don't support "security for the sake of show."

Look forward to hearing more from you!

Mike

And that is one thing that is wrong with the TSA; they need to have a stricter hiring process; such as only prior professional Military personnel with common sense and the expertise to make a command decision. The way it is now; they have to take every situation as it is the real deal, or people are going to get hurt. Even if TSO’s were all prior Military, for certain situations such as with something that appears to be an explosive, no one should just assume it’s not because the person with the item doesn’t look like a terrorist. That is when mistakes happen and people get killed.

Semper Fi,

Bob

"Oh yeah, my paperweight. Don't worry about it. It is a fake grenade....trust me."

Bob,

Thank you for being a part of this country's defense through the beloved Corps. You did a job few want to do. Welcome to FT!

I have noticed, especially in the last two years or so, some improvement in the average competence (not to mention basic manguage skills) of the TSO's as a whole. When the TSA first started it was the largest assemblage of the hard-core unemployable and gum-cracking, barely literate flotsam that I had ever seen. I usually hear TSO's cracking their gum and complaining about how unfair their schedules are and whining about how long it is until thier next break once a trip, it used to be every time I passed through a check point, so a 75% reduction in that by my entirely unscientific observation.

You are entirely correct that former military and law enforcement is exactly what the TSA needs. We're not at the low point of the TSA where the answer to a question I asked one of the Phi-beta-kappa members at EWR terminal "A" was "I not dem, dey nah me!" but there is still so much of the original talent, combined with generally incompetent leadership, that the TSA definitely has a long way to go.

--Paul