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Another low for airport screeners

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flydog

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
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542
Decorated WWII veteran detained, searched at airport
February 27, 2002 Posted: 12:37 PM EST (1737 GMT)

Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world.

PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- Retired Gen. Joe Foss, 86, one of the most highly decorated U.S. war veterans, recently was detained at a security checkpoint at the Phoenix, Arizona, airport because he was carrying an item with sharp edges.

The sharp object turned out to be the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he had received in 1943 from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. CNN's Jack Cafferty spoke Tuesday with Foss about his airport experience and career.

CAFFERTY: General, Franklin Roosevelt, the president of the United States, awarded you the Congressional Medal of Honor, and your picture was on the cover of Life magazine on June 7, 1943. For what did you receive the medal and what can you tell us about the day you were given the medal by the president?

FOSS: Well, actually, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for action over Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. ... See, I was the top ace during that time.

CAFFERTY: You shot down 26 enemy aircraft, is that right, general?

FOSS: That is correct.

CAFFERTY: That is amazing.

FOSS: We were the decoys over the enemy fleet a number of times flying over them at 12,000 feet and having everyone shoot at you. They try to get you, and then you dive -- take a vertical dive on the warship -- in the middle of the thing -- to draw fire so the torpedo planes could get in.

CAFFERTY: Unbelievable.

FOSS: I was on my way -- after a National Rifle Association board of directors meeting -- to go up to West Point and speak to the sophomore class there.

CAFFERTY: And you were going to take the medal and show the cadets up at West Point. You got to the airport, what happened?

FOSS: Well, you see, when I got to the airport, I planned on just going through as I normally have in the past. But they had this mass of checkers back there that seemed to hone in on me.

I had on a Western hat, which I normally wear, and this tie, which is known as a bolo tie, and a belt buckle that says, "Dakota Gun Collectors," on it and Western boots.

CAFFERTY: They eventually wound up taking the Congressional Medal of Honor away from you, didn't they, at the airport?

FOSS: Well, the whole deal was the medal and this little thing that was with it, which has a little fingernail file on it, and it has the Congressional Medal Society insignia on this thing -- I've carried it for years -- and that set off the thing when I threw my jacket in there.

They said, "Take everything out of your jacket," and I thought I had. I'm just not used to carrying a medal in my pocket here. So I threw the whole thing in a basket, and when that set that off, they said, "We thought you emptied the jacket."

And now it came back. And that started the fracas, and they said, "Off with your boots. Off with your belt. Off with your tie. Off with your hat."

CAFFERTY: Were they nice to you at this time? I mean, were they polite?

FOSS: No, they were very nasty. It was a nasty group of individuals that I couldn't seem to make understand. And I was trying to show them this medal, that it had all the inscription on the back there. About me receiving it from the president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and so forth.

But no one seemed to know what was going on. And then I said, "What happens to the stuff you take from me?" And they said, "Oh, it's destroyed." And I said, "Well, you aren't taking that medal, that's for sure. Or this other thing." And so then the next number on the program, I had some keys and stuff that I -- and an imitation bullet thing -- it never was a bullet -- but it looked like a bullet that President Charlton Heston of the NRA gave me. And they took that.

I said, "What happens to all of that?"

"It's destroyed."

So then I said, "Can I keep any of it?"

And they said, "No, unless you go over there, write that desk right there and mail it back to yourself."

"Well OK." What happens, I step over there, and they say, "Off with your boots. Off with your belt. Off with your hat."

I said, "You just checked me."

And, of course, then in the meantime, my jacket gets lost in the back, and we horse around. And all of this operation took about 45 minutes or so.

Finally, I get out of here, and I get to the gate. And as the passengers pile on, I had a first-class pass to get on -- not pass, we paid for the ticket -- and they take me out of line, and the lady says, "Off with your boots. Off with your belt. Off with your tie."

CAFFERTY: This is the third time?

FOSS: That's the third time. And by that time, I was fairly warm.

CAFFERTY: I bet you were at that, general.

FOSS: And, of course, the questions that they asked and all -- it was so nonsensical, the whole thing. There's no way you could catch a terrorist. In fact, you'd be -- while you were looking at some clown like me, the terrorist would go by.

CAFFERTY: Now you talked to the officials at America West, the airline that was involved in this.

FOSS: They've been very nice.

CAFFERTY: There's been a visit arranged. Tell us about the visit that's upcoming here.

FOSS: Well the airline, America West, has been very nice. The vice president called me, and I personally talked to him. And the public relations director talked to me. And I'm going to have them out to the house to meet my wife and the rest of the tribe and let them know that we are not terrorists. We're just ordinary citizens trying to get on an airline to go someplace and back home.

CAFFERTY: General, let me thank you so much for a very entertaining and interesting, if unfortunate, story.

Let me also thank you for what you and your buddies did all those many years ago. Because I've got a hunch, without the likes of you back there during World War II, the likes of me wouldn't be sitting here right now talking to the likes of you.
 
That is so flippin' sad. That's what happens when you don't require a high school diploma for a job, they don't even recognize a hero. Dumb basta*d's. Maybe once the screeners are all US citizens they might actually know about WWII.
 
You need to get through 10th grade History before you know anything about WWII. So, no such luck in the screeners ever knowing anything about WWII.
 
"Hello, welcome to Quickie Mart, er, screening. Frankfurt Eleanor Rosenbaum? Who's that? Off with your shoes, off with your tie, off with your hat..."
 
I hate the screeners as much as the next non-terrorist. But when was the last time you ran into this decorated war hero? I doubt very many of us on this forum would have recognized this man. The screeners didn't know him. He could have been some rambling old man with alzheimers with his pants on backwards saying he is good friends with the President.

PS. Yes, I realize he doesn't fit the profile of a Muslim extremist.
 
Hold on here a minute....

AWACoff,

You could have seen him on national television in the fall when he was a guest of honor at the opening of the Pacific Wing of the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. You could have also seen him be interviewed on TV at about the same time.

If you had you would have seen that despite your cynical and degrading characterization of this fine American, he does not ramble, nor does he wear his pants on backwards.

He does however, carry in his hand the highest military honor this country can give. And he is one of the now dwindling thousands of WWII veterans who ensured that you didn't have to get up at the beginning of school and sing Duetschland uber alles followed by a quick bow to the Emporer.

I could give a sh_t about being delayed at a security checkpoint, and if the high school dropout with the wand wants me to drop trous so he can check out my "package", fine. But their, and your, unwarranted abuse of someone we all owe such a debt, angers me beyond belief.

It's apology time AWACoff. Not to me, not to this board - an apology to the people who sacrificed so much to keep you free, and to whom you apparently hold nothing but contempt. Go read a history book. Or try this link, it might would be a good place for you to start....

http://www.sdpb.org/TV/foss/

Travis Allen
 
General Foss

Amen to the last post!

Might alarm you to know there are actually 86 year old men who do not have Altzheimers or their pants on backwards. Just read that interview and tell me who has ALL his faculties still working 100%! Does not at all sound like an addled old man. Hope to God I'm half that sharp if I make it to 86!

What a bunch of fools at security. Probably didn't have the slightest idea what the Medal is and what it stands for. Probably thought an 86 year old man was trying to sneak on board with that deadly weapon to.... now just what in the hell would he possibly do with that??

Actually, the fact that he was searched so frequently ought to tell you just how old and feeble he DOESNT look.

Foolishness continues, with high school drop outs on power trips...
 
Let us not forget that Gen. Joe Foss was also Governor Joe Foss. He was the governor of South Dakota for two terms.

What happened to him at that airport was disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful. That the screeners should be fired for nothing else but stupidity is a given. Now that all screeners will be Federal employees it is going to get a lot worse, a lot worse.
 
My statement was made with my tongue firmly in cheek but I stand by what I said. If I as an airline pilot could have the gall to have no idea who this man is...think about a security screener who can hardly speak english and doesn't have a high school diploma or GED. Think people. I've known a handful of our elders that would have told you anything. My own grandmother (bless her soul) had many delusions when she got older. There are some old folks out there that will tell you quite a yarn (and believe it themselves). You people are overreactionary politically correct zealots. You need to step into other people's shoes. Go beat up some Muslims after you're done wasting bandwidth on your non-effectual flag waving. Better yet, go volunteer at the VA hospital if you're such a patriotic American.
 

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