Veterans participating in the Never Forgotten Honor Flight trips will have fewer airport hassles during their memorial viewing mission, thanks to something included in the spending bill passed recently by Congress and signed by the President this week.
The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, instituted security checks after the
9-11 attacks that are physically challenging for many elderly or disabled people, such
as removing belts, shoes, and going through pat-downs before boarding airplanes.
Mike Thompson is a co-founder of the Never Forgotten Honor Flight program. He
says watching veterans go through searches this during his first flight was almost
unbearable. He was able to get the head of the TSA to observe what was happening,
and he made a rule that helps most Honor Flights...
“From that visual that the head of TSA had, he declared at that point that from now on, any Honor Flight that’s chartered, they show a picture ID and they walk straight through. That’s all there is to it.”
That administrative rule was put in place for chartered flights in 2011. Thompson says
it not only causes fewer problems like mixed up shoes and watches, but it also gives
them more time in Washington....
“It’s reduced our time getting on at CWA (Central Wisconsin Airport) by 40 minutes, and also at Washington D.C. coming back by about 40 minutes, so an hour and 20 minutes of our day is better used to view the memorials and monuments in D.C. that are dedicated to our veterans.”
The controversial 1-point-1 trillion dollar spending bill expands this administrative rule to law, and allows Honor Flight programs around the nation using any flight the same privileges.
(courtesy WSAU)
