Posted on 07/06/2010 1:31:35 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, July 6, 2010 – The Transportation Security Administration is reminding military members that explosives are not allowed on commercial flights.
TSA spokesman Lauren Gaches said agency workers occasionally encounter servicemembers who have packed inert grenades or other prohibited items in their luggage, often as a keepsake from the battlefield.
“The problem is, when you’re looking at that through an X-ray machine, you can’t tell the difference” as to whether it could explode, she said.
Servicemembers traveling with prohibited items is not a common problem, but it can be disruptive, Gaches said.
“From time to time, we see folks traveling with this type of material, and it has to be surrendered,” she said, adding that such items are not returned.
If security officers find prohibited items, they may have to close checkpoints or baggage areas temporarily, or call in bomb squads, Gaches said.
Prohibited items include blasting caps, dynamite, fireworks, flares, hand grenades and explosives, either real or replicated. TSA permits other items such as firearms and ammunition in checked luggage – not carry-on baggage – but airlines may be stricter, according to the TSA website. A full list of TSA-prohibited items is available at http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm#content.
“At TSA, we salute the men and women of our armed forces and thank them for their service to our country,” Gaches said in a prepared statement. “We always look forward to partnering with our servicemembers during the security screening process as we strive to achieve our mutual mission of protecting our homeland.”
| Related Sites: Transportation Security Administration Prohibited Items |
Military advisers to the article were Private Joke, Captain Obvious and General Knowledge...
I wonder if this includes ammo cans, I used to pack all my loose junk in ammo cans when I flew.
I think I was doing this before they used to xray the checked in luggage.
This is not new.
It happened several years ago and really screwed up a flight schedule for a few hundred people. Thre was even a thread here on FR about it.
A soldier would instantly look and say, “inert”, sure.
But a TSA guy would find one and it looks and feels like a grenade, and a screener wouldn’t notice or know the purpose of the hole in the bottom. What to do?
So, then, everybody can claim the think that looks and feels like an explosive device is “just inert” and there ya go.
“At TSA, we salute the men and women of our armed forces and thank them for their service to our country,” Gaches said in a prepared statement. “We always look forward to partnering with our servicemembers during the security screening process as we strive to achieve our mutual mission of protecting our homeland.”
The TSA is a joke, their “partnering with our servicemembers” only extends to the extra security the many servicemember must endure when traveling, servicemembers make up a high percentage of TSA extra screening because TSA knows servicemembers would complain about it.
Given the choice of a military member or a person of middle-eastern descent the average TSA screener will pick the military member for extra screening.
TSA’s screening numbers stay high and complants stay low.
It may be an over statement of the obvious but apparently it occurs with enough regularity that the obvious horse needs another flogging
I don’t know about the current conflict, but bringing home souvenirs has always been the practice of returning soldiers. As a kid I played with a German MP40 (schmeiser sub machine gun) that the father of a friend had brought home from WWII. No shooting of course, but at the age of 10 I knew that gun inside and out.
Later on I served on my first police department with a Viet Nam veteran who had brought home a large number of grenades and a .45 pistol that had “fallen off” the unit inventory. He and his dad went down to the local dam and blew off the grenades in the water, one by one.
I liked the world we lived in back in those days. Not so much now.
I remember coming through Okinawa and they had a big
board with confiscated items posted.
You might not think a guy would need a Claymore or
handgranate at home but then maybe he lived in Detroit.
Things were a lot easier in the 60’s could have taken
a lot more home. Had a swell AR15 cut down into a
pistol, should have broken it down and mailed it.
Had a friend buy a brick of hash in Thailand, he just
wrapped it up in brown paper and sent it to his mother.
“Do not open til I get home!”
Can’t certain classes of explosives be carried on commercial flights? C4? These are used in explosive releases.
Don’t know but don’t think so.
Back in April, 1971, I took advantage of a new leave program. This was separate from the standard R&R and was a 14-day leave to the land of the Big PX. You left on a commercial charter from the civilian side of Than Son Nhut airport, not a military aircraft or military charter.
My scheduled departure was delayed by an operation on the Laotian border, so the Squadron Commander sent an aircraft to pick me up and fly me directly to Than Son Nhut. When we got there, I turned my CAR-15 and .45 over to the crew and hopped off with my rucksack. I was half way to the ops building when I remembered what was in my ruck - ammo, mini-frags, mini-smokes, C-4, two claymores, signal flares. I went back to the bird and unloaded all of that stuff. No one ever checked from that point until we landed in Dallas. Customs could have checked, but since I hadn’t bathed in over 14 days, I don’t think they were inclined to do so.
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