Dean you made me get creative, I designed this shirt in your honor.

Nice. I gotta get one and wear it when I travel. Those who know would find it amusing.

Hah! TK, you could design a whole line of TSA-related clothing that would only be vaguely recognizable if you knew what you were looking for.

As for being fired for posting on FT...

I'm a private citizen here. I'm not here as a representative of the TSA in any way, though I do happen to work for them. So long as one does not post things which are SSI (no matter how much it pisses everyone else off when you answer a question with "Sorry, that's SSI...") then there's really not all that much that they can do. Freedom of expression and such.

And, otherwise, there's nothing they can nail me for. They can threaten me all they like, but I'd totally call their bluff ;) I've been with the TSA for entirely too long. Still, my management here in HSV has never shown any kind of negativity for what I do online. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they've been supportive of it, but it seems more like a hands-off approach.

You guys feed me the lingo and I will design pretty much anything.

I think they know that unlike most of the TSA people like you. They know if you get fired you will let us know and they will have to field the calls.

If you do, the space center is not just for kids. They have a Corporate Challenge program too. I've done it twice. Once in the right seat of the shuttle, once as Capcom. I did get brownie points as pilot for pointing out to ground control that my boss was still on the end of the robot arm and I thought we should go around instead of landing. They still made us land at Edwards AFB. Way too many toggle switches in that thing.

Odd that they'd simulate a re-entry with the payload bay doors open, but at least the inability to do a go-around is proper. Unless the decision you were calling for a go-around was one more orbit. I've got a couple of bosses I would have loved to torch on the end of the arm, or just hold back there in front of the OMS engines during a burn. Sort of like lighting a fart in reverse.

I think if I was terminated for the release of security-sensitive information, that they wouldn't care :P I just haven't been fired because I haven't screwed up, and my management doesn't care to attempt to limit my exercising of my freedom of speech otherwise.

That said, I'm not at odds with my management over this, or anything else for that matter. They're great guys, all of 'em, very fair and even-handed. One of the first things that they established was to be on a first-name basis with all of 'em. It's kind of strange calling my Federal Security Director by his first name like we're pals, but it does foster a more tightly-knit group of people.

The simulation is highly forgiving - it didn't even mind that I did not activate the fuel pumps in time for launch. It is not anything like a flight simulator. Supposedly they grade how accurate you are to the script you are given, but it is tough to learn in a 30 minute orientation - and it is based on how long you pay for. Some of the student ones last for days - no thanks.

Yes, FT does change our perceptions. Terms like Moat Dragon, WTMD, EQM, Mileage Run, become the most logical way of thinking about things we encounter.

I was transferring at CVG a few weeks ago, stopped to look at the monitor to see what gate my ORD flight would be leaving from. I couldn't find it, couldn't find any flights to ORD. Finally it dawned on me I had to look under "C" for "Chicago", not "O" for "ORD". Had to kick my self, but I was laughing...

The TSA version of Don't Ask, Don't Tell?

ummmm what else would you call him? I certainly don't call my agency Director "Mister Smith", never occured to me to do so.

^ on the moat dragon comment.

Darn us to heck???
 

Where is Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light?

With so many of us from the pocket protector set in HSV... shame on us for not adding this sooner.

Scuttlebutt says the Security Director down in BHM requires the employees to specifically call her "Mrs. Smith" or they're subject to being written up for... something.

Just rumors, though, that.

He's sitting at the front with his loupe-on-a-rope and his little Flashlight of Insufficient Light.