TSA confiscates heavily armed soldiers nail clippers

[bluedigger]

Well, at least they weren't irradiated and/or groped...

"Here's an anonymous account of a US Army soldier returning from Afghanistan who watched as his buddies -- who were all carrying high-powered rifles, pistols, etc -- were forced to surrender their nail-clippers and multi-tools:"
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/19/tsa-confiscates-heav.html

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[TwilightGardener]

1. Um, that doesn't sound right. Regular soldiers wouldn't be traveling

through US airports with firearms, would they?

[Kennah]

3. Exactly correct

Regular Army U.S. soldiers, SpecOps or otherwise, would not be flying a commercial flight with rifles, pistols, or buzzguns.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. +1

[bluedigger]

10. I don't know.

I was in the National Guard and we flew on a commercial charter flight to and from Italy 20 years ago, but we didn't even take our weapons, as we were on a training mission with the Italian Alpini - we took skis, etc... But other than that, it could have been a normal civilian flight, full of uniformed soldiers.

The link from Redstate posted below seems to be the same incident with a little more detail. All I can say is that we also refueled at Shannon, and went into the concours like normal passengers. We disembarked in New England so we didn't have any transfers, etc. On balance, I find the story plausible.:shrug:

[TwilightGardener]

13. I don't think military personnel are allowed to carry weapons on their

persons while traveling on commercial flights. I think firearms are carefully controlled and inventoried and issued only at certain times and places.

[bluedigger]

15. Again, I don't know.

Yes, weapons are carefully controlled, etc... (Sidestory - When I was in the 101st, a neighboring unit came back in from the field, and an M-16 went missing as they turned in their weapons. The entire battalion (~800 men) were sent back out to look for it. They stayed out there for almost a month, until their families raised such a ruckus due to Thanksgiving approaching that they were brought back in. It was eventually determined that it went out the gate in a soldier's trunk - he's probably still doing time at Leavenworth. It's a big deal.)

There are commercial flights and commercial flights. The military charters flights solely for its use - as I indicated earlier. They don't have sufficient military aircraft to move everyone around on their own. If they had the plane to themselves, the easiest way to get their small arms from place to place would be to let the soldiers carry them. As the story says, the ammo was secured separately. Remember, they are traveling in and out of a war zone with no front lines.

Charter flights would also be likely to fly into civilian airports due to logistical requirements - either military facilities were not local, convenient, or equipped to service the civilian aircraft. So far, I can't see much to discredit the story, other than everybody saying that troops can't do that, but nobody has shown any proof of that belief, and I don't have any, either.:shrug:

When I googled earlier, it was clear the story was viral, so it should be confirmed or refudiated soon. (I can't believe I just said that! :rofl:)

[liberal N proud]

2. That is about as stupid as screening the pilots every day

It is getting really stupid out there.

[MineralMan]

5. This sounds like a false story. Military personnel do not fly

on commercial aircraft while armed. Nail-clippers are allowed in the passenger cabin now. Multi-tools almost always feature a knife blade, and are not allowed in the passenger cabin on any flights, whoever carries them. This sounds like a cooked-up story. No thank you.

[Enrique]

6. anonymous anecdote posted by Eric Erickson at RedState.org

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/11/18/another-tsa-outrage/

[haifa lootin]

7. Woah, that bent the needle on my satirometer...

;-)

[Enrique]

8. it's not satire

it's a made up story intended to believed as true.

[haifa lootin]

9. You're right, I was looking at the wrong meter...it was actually my bullshit detector.

:D

[dflprincess]

11. A very reliable source told me about a pilot having to surrender his nail clipper

because it's not like he'd have access to the crash axe once he was in the cockpit.

[bluedigger]

12. Or the controls...

[bluetrain]

14. They once confiscated my mother's very dangerous tweezers.

[dflprincess]

16. If the flight got turbulent

she could have put her eye out!

[veganlush]

17. hehehehehe