In article .com,
"John Martin" wrote:

Charlie, I'm surprised you omitted the incident with Joe Foss. Foss, a
WWII Marine ace fighter pilot and Medal of Honor winner, was flying
from Phoenix to address the cadets at West Point. He was searched and
questioned extensively because he had with him an object that looked
like a throwing star with a sharp pin on the back - his Medal of Honor.
To be honest, he also had a Medal of Honor commemorative nail file and
a dummy bullet on a keychain with him. But, as a WWII ace and Medal of
Honor winner, retired reserve general and former governor of South
Dakota - and at 86 years old - he hardly fit the profile of a
terrorist. As I recall, they asked him at one point why he hadn't just
put his medal in his checked luggage. Incredible.

An Oregon veteran experienced something similar, I believe it was about
a year ago. Seems a group of WW2 vets were invited to a European town
they had helped liberate. During a ceremony the vets were given
vintage-WW2-style Zippo lighters with engraving of their unit insignia,
the town's name and the liberation date. On the way home the Oregonian's
lighter was confiscated in the US by the screeners. He showed them it
had never had fluid in it, nor a flint; they took it anyway and wouldn't
consider an exception.

Upon returning home, the vet told his story to a relative or friend who
then contacted one of the Oregon senators who tracked it down and had it
returned to the veteran.

A thought has been rattling around in my noggin' for a couple years: why
doesn't the USPS, UPS or FedEx open offices in the airports specifically
for the purpose of shipping items that would be confiscated at the
checkpoints? Hell, they could even offer to hold the item at the
recipient's closest terminal until a specific date the recipient would
return to accept delivery. Granted, most items wouldn't be worth the
shipping cost, but take the lighter or the Medal of Honor incidents. Or
the special pair of sewing scissors Grandma received from Grandpa on
their 50th?
--
Owen Lowe
The Fly-by-Night Copper Company
__________

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
Corporate States of America and to the
Republicans for which it stands, one nation,
under debt, easily divisible, with liberty
and justice for oil."
- Wiley Miller, Non Sequitur, 1/24/05