On 11 January 2002,
Joseph J. Foss of Scottsdale, Arizona — a major in the USMC during World War II, a colonel in the USAF during the Korean War, and later a brigadier general with the South Dakota Air National Guard — was attempting to board an America West flight bound for Arlington, Virginia, when airport security held him for 45 minutes while they debated what to do with a variety of suspect items he had about his person. This 86-year-old former governor of South Dakota was on his way to attend a National Rifle Association meeting and to speak to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and he carried with him his Medal of Honor, as well as a Medal of Honor commemorative nail file and a dummy bullet which had been made into a key fob.
Each of these items was regarded as a potential security risk by airport personnel: the bullet for being a bullet, the nail file for being a nail file (metal nail files are now banned on flights in the USA), and the Medal of Honor for being a suspicious five-pointed metal object that might have been a weapon (similar to the Japanese throwing discs known hira shuriken).
After being repeatedly searched, Foss was allowed to board the plane with his Medal of Honor, but he had to mail the bullet and nail file home to himself. Foss' experience prompted the piece quoted above, which is the text of a Bob Greene article from the 24 February 2002 Chicago Tribune.
Several columnists have since used this incident as the centerpiece of newspaper articles about the issues surrounding heightened air travel standards since September 11 because it highlights the problems inherent to new airport security measures. Where does a reasonable standard of protection leave off and lunacy begin? Granted, if bullets are on the banned list then passengers shouldn't attempt to bring them onboard, but should bullets which have been drilled and turned into key charms — ornamental objects which clearly pose no threat to anyone — be treated as if they were "real" bullets? And should a Medal of Honor — the country's highest award for bravery — even fleetingly be considered a possible threat to the safety of others?
We shouldn't fault airport security officers for not recognizing a Medal of Honor on sight; not many people get to see one in their lives. But a closer examination by security personnel would have shown them what it was, and at that point in the proceedings they fell down on the job. Rather than treating an obviously cooperative passenger courteously and allowing him to explain what the suspect item was, they shuffled the general back and forth and required him to remove his boots, belt, hat, and tie — several times each. The delay they subjected him to almost caused him to miss his flight. That is no way to treat any 86-year-old man, let alone a war hero and former governor.
Had the situation been handled professionally, the general would have cleared the security checkpoint in all of five minutes, with most of that taken up by the manual search his pacemaker necessitated. Yes, his nail file and key-ring charm would have been taken from him because both these items are on the list of things one must not bring onto a plane. But the Medal of Honor should have been quickly vetted and returned to its owner, and its owner should have been treated respectfully throughout.
Then again, if this were a perfect world, nobody would have let me into it.
Barbara "perfect alibi" Mikkelson
