RT NewsIt’s bad enough that a US Marine lost both his legs in combat. But after TSA agents forced the wheelchair-bound man to stand up, walk and remove his prosthetic legs at an airport in Phoenix, he was publicly humiliated for his disability.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration this week, condemning TSA officers for mistreating the wounded soldier on March 13. The Marine, who is still on active duty, had lost both of his legs in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast while deployed. The man is now confined to a wheelchair. He showed up at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with an escort that helped him get around.
In his complaint addressed to TSA Administrator John Pistole, Hunter said that the agency made the Marine feel “humiliated.”
“The individual escorting this Marine asked the TSA officer which of the two checkpoints to enter and received the response, ‘either one,’ only to be told moments later they should have entered a different way,”Hunter explained in his letter.
Moments later, TSA officers ordered the wounded Marine to get out of his wheelchair and subsequently remove his prosthetic legs, subjecting him to immense pain while he struggled to get out of his wheelchair.
“A TSA officer asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own,” Hunter wrote. “With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on, only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficult, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives.”
The invasive search occurred while several Marines were returning to San Diego, California from Phoenix, Arizona. The disabled Marine showed his military ID, which didn’t stop the TSA from publicly humiliating him and questioning his injuries.
The Marine’s escort was so enraged by the incident that Hunter’s office was contacted to shed light on the situation. Hunter was particularly struck by the incident, since he himself was a Marine veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The incident is also alarming, considering it took place at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which is a joint civil-military public airport. The airport facilities are also home to the Sky Harbor Air National Guard Base. With so many military personnel entering and leaving through the airport, TSA officers in charge of security likely encounter many wounded soldiers – and should therefore have received proper training on how to handle passengers with disabilities.
But the case detailed by Hunter demonstrates otherwise: the congressman included two photos of the inspection in his letter, which show a TSA officer patting down the injured Marine and examining the prosthetic leg in search for explosives.
Hunter has asked the TSA to clarify its procedures on how to handle wounded troops and to show“situational awareness” in cases where the passenger is clearly disabled.
“While I recognize the necessity to appropriately screen passengers, I am concerned by the apparent lack of situational awareness and respect among TSA officers – specifically when it comes to the treatment of war wounded,” Hunter wrote. “I am hopeful you will give this situation the attention it deserves.”
T reasnous
S cumbags &
A ssholes
This is why I don’t fly anymore.
If I had been there, or if they try to subject me to molestation like that,… there will be at least one TSA agent in need of rehab, and another lawyer employed to try and get me out of jail.
These vile bags of puke simply need to be exterminated like the disease that they are.
JD – US Marines – The TSA makes it so easy to see how treasnous they are.
Here’s what it will take, stop doing things that expose you to this unlawful govt. Stop flying, stop traveling by private conveyance, stop buying into the American dream that has reared its’ head of ugly nightmares. Stop buying the BS. Start roughing it.
Their aren’t words to describe the injustice suffered by this brave soldier.
I fly very little anymore and when I do it is usually private. If you watch carefully
in public airports there is often a lane with no porno scanner. I avoid the scanner lane and the refusal that gets me a gropedown about 75% of the
time. The TSA have only been rude to me once or twice but I always dress
like someone important, suit, expensive shoes etc.
Is anyone else seeing links in these articles turn into spam ads for everything from viagra to prosthetics? or is my day old install got malware already?
I’m not seeing any spam ads or links. I think you’ve picked up some nasty malware.
I’ve got ONE word that best describes TSA.
DESPICABLE!!!
The other Marines in the area should have banded together and stomped the living shit out of the TSA scumbags. Sure they would’ve been arrested,(then again, maybe not) but no thinking judge would sentence them to any kind of penalties.
That surprised me too. That marines let one of their injured comrades be degraded speaks volumes to me. I would not allow a disabled friend to be treated so and I am a civilian.
I have said it so many times it must get boring – men are nearly extinct. I mean real men not those metrosexual( just using that word makes me cranky) pretenders to the title.
I am beginning to hate having to deal with the general public in my day to day life. Just talking to the average person depresses me these days. When did the human race get so damned stupid? It has happened over the last twenty or thirty years and it is not my imagination.
Fluoridated water, chemtrails, toxic food additives, GMOs, indoctrination centers that laughingly pass for schools these days, and MOST of all – TELEVISION!
Take your pick, uninformedLuddite, they ALL contribute.
If you really want to get a greeny liberal whiner upset try the following scenario. Adlib it as necessary.
Discuss the horrifying effects of pollution (BPA, phenols, gender bending chemicals, etc) and how these pollutants are causing the mass feminisation of creatures in the wild. Get them agreeing with you about such horrors and then ask them why when it affects a human it’s called a ‘lifestyle choice’.
I managed to pull this one on someone asking for donations for some green mob outside a supermarket a couple of days ago. It will nearly always show you a classic example of doublethink.
Before anyone gets too excited I am not calling US Marines metrosexuals. The fact that they didn’t support their injured comrade makes me feel sick. I have stood up for strangers when I have felt it is the right thing to do(and I do not mean giving up my seat on the bus – though I have done that a few times).
Shades of “Idiocracy”.
Have you seen the movie?