WWII Super-Ace Joe Foss Hassled; MoH Ancillaries Taken by
Lunatic Screeners
Now-General (ret.) Joe Foss, 86, paid for his own flying lessons
partly by waiting tables; at 27, he was considered "too old" to fly
combat; but the second lieutenant finagled 150 hours in Wildcats,
and was soon given Pacific Theater duty, where he ran up 26 kills,
equaling Capt Eddie Rickenbacker's WWI total.
In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded him the Congressional
Medal of Honor. He nearly had that medal taken from him by some of
the jerks who screen passengers at Sky Harbor International, in
Phoenix (AZ), as he tried to board a flight to DC on January
11.
These dimbulbs were giving Foss, a man whose loyalty to the USA
is unquestioned, a hard time, because of their "one level of
security" (lack of) mentality. They didn't know what the Medal of
Honor was, and they wanted to take it, because it might be used as
a weapon!
Just Another Security Outrage
By ANN Columnist-at-Large, Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien
Joe Foss spent the best years of his life fighting against evil,
totalitarian regimes. After what happened to him last week, he
might be excused for thinking he lost.
Foss, for those who don’t know him, is a pretty amazing
guy. Like a lot of people who were young when Lindbergh flew (he
was just 12 at the time), he was inspired to fly by the great
airman and scrounged money for lessons.
He served when his country called, teaching hundreds of young
Americans to fly. Then when he was 'over the hill' by fighter
standards, he became a top Marine fighter ace (he shot down five
Japanese planes in one day at Guadalcanal, flying an obsolete
Wildcat).
He won many awards, including the Congressional Medal of Honor
– the USA’s top military decoration, given to only the
bravest of the brave, for acts of near-foolhardy valor (Lindbergh
got one, too).
He was a two-term governor of his home state, South Dakota, and
a successful businessman.
He hosted a TV show and headed any number of famous enterprises,
charities and non-profits, including the American Football League,
Easter Seals and the National Rifle Association. In other words, he
was a thumping success at a wider range of things than most of us
ever imagine trying.
But Foss thought that he could travel freely in today’s
United States, and then he made the mistake of trying to reason
with the moronic, illiterate, education-shy and insolent (and
probably) foreigners now employed as airline security guards.
They thought his Medal of Honor should be taken from him –
either because it has points (see the picture) and therefore is a
“weapon,” or because they just wanted it.
People passing through checkpoints have learned that guard greed
is a great motivator of jewelry confiscation.
He should probably get another Medal of Honor for that.
You know, reasoning with security goons, foolhardy valor; same
difference.
What Happened in Phoenix?
Basically, “security” goons working for America West
treated Foss like dirt (or any unclean word of your preference).
They tried to run him through a machine that could have stopped his
pacemaker, killing him. They played a shoes-off, shoes-on game with
him over and over, helped themselves to a few of his trinkets, and
most egregiously, they seem to have attempted to steal his Medal of
Honor.
“I was sizzling,” Foss remembers. "They're so nuts
about this thing now,” he told the Associated Press.
“That whole program needs to go back… and start from
square one. It's nutty. Why should you have to go through such a
hassle?” He told the Washington Times, "They just didn't know
what it was but they acted like I shouldn't be carrying it on. I
kept explaining that it was the highest medal you can receive from
the military in this country, but nobody listened."
Joe Foss is not the Lone Ranger; many have been dismayed at the
ineptitude and crudity with which “enhanced” security
has been deployed. It appears that pilots and other successful
people are singled out for abuse, as Foss was, by insolent guards
("Metal Hip, eh?" 01-09-02, ANN).
In a much longer column that ANN has had in the pipeline for a
while (and will hopefully run now as a longer sidebar to this one
– hey E-I-C, that’s a hint!), I have described how poor
and futile our present security procedures are. But this outrage
really distills the whole thing.
A friend who is both an Army buddy and a fellow aviation fiend
asked me, “where the hell were the National Guard? They would
have recognized the medal, at least.” I can’t answer
his question, nor can I really agree with his conclusion. The NG
guys and gals that I have seen at airports are mostly from
headquarters or MP units and have a very tenuous and distant
connection to the crucible that molds men like Joe Foss. They mean
well, but come from an Army where hardly anybody outside of special
operations forces is really at ease carrying loaded firearms
around. One of the MPs has already accidentally shot himself (in
the gluteus maximus, naturally) and it is just a matter of time
before one of them accidentally shoots someone else.
As I said, Joe Foss is an amazing guy. He is also 86 years old
and not the least bit Arabian, so chances of him being one of the
terrorists, who so far have all been young Arabs or Muslims, are
pretty slim. But his age makes him a perfect target for the
illiterate, stupid and possibly foreign cretins that hassled him
last week. It is not surprising that none of them knew what the
Congressional Medal of Honor was. [The airline's spokeswoman, Patty
Nowack, confirmed in a conversation with ANN that she does not know
what the Medal of Honor looks like. She was still trying to get a
handle on the incident, when we talked Sunday evening --ed.]
What Should You Do?
We need to take actions as aviators, citizens, and people that
are smarter than security guards (which is everybody else allowed
outdoors without a hockey helmet). It is time for this "security"
nonsense to be stopped ("One Size Fits All, Doesn't," 01-09-02,
ANN). The idiots and the unable should be weeded out. The
undocumented need to be sent home. There is no reason that people,
merely on the basis of some Congressman's next voter-registration
campaign, should be gleefully humiliating businesspeople, war
heroes, and aircrews (don’t even get me started on Menear --
"US Airways Pilot Made 'Inappropriate Remarks!'" 01-14-02; "US
Airways Suspends Woody," 01-17-02, ANN -- or on the stews and other
young women who have been groped).
We’re not hearing any common sense from Washington,
though. [Note: this surprises Hognose. We're investigating his
background more thoroughly, now --ed.] Suddenly it is more
important to employ the current people – who prove their
unfitness daily, in an unremitting cascade of egregious misbehavior
– than to have any objective standard. The guards are
enjoying their feeling of Federal impunity and demonstrating this
with universal and systemwide bestial stupidity. If I were a child
psychologist I might say they were “acting out.” What I
am, is a disgusted citizen; and what I say, is,
“enough!”
So far, most of the measures taken by the federal government
have worsened the problem. It doesn’t help that the new head
of the Transportation Security Administration is John Magaw, a
career secret policeman (in the grim Russian sense) who
demonstrated as head of the dreaded Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms that he has trouble distinguishing the Bill of Rights from
toilet paper ("Former ATF, SS Boss to be Under Secretary of
Transportation," 12-11-01; "Magaw is In at DoT," 01-09-02,
ANN).
The situation now is sufficiently desperate that we have no
choice but to turn to an unlikely source of succor –
Congress. We cannot and need not tolerate the outrageous acts of
what are, when all is said and done, some of the most brain-dead
humanoids to ever (barely) fog a mirror. The recent aviation
security act must be amended to require functional English skills,
normal-range intelligence, and high school equivalency (in other
words, burger-flipping ability) as a minimum from these people, and
to make it clear that they are to deal respectfully with the
public. All of these are clearly not priorities with the
present TSA, and unless the TSA’s hand is forced by
legislative action the goon squad aspect of the present security
checkpoints will only worsen.
Finally, let’s not let America West go unpunished. You can
be damned sure that this is one veteran whose butt will not soon
grace the seat of any of America West’s flying
contraptions. So toss your FlightFund card and strike a blow
against Tojo, Hitler, Mussolini, and America West's screeners. We
owe it to Joe. Like Private Ryan’s evil twin, America West
went the extra mile to “earn this.”
Medal of Honor Citation:
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve,
Marine Fighting Squadron 121, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. Place and
date: Over Guadalcanal, 9 October to 19 November 1942, 15 and 23
January 1943. Entered service at: South Dakota. Born: 17 April 1
915, Sioux Falls, S. Dakota. For outstanding heroism and courage
above and beyond the call of duty as executive officer of Marine
Fighting Squadron 121, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, at
Guadalcanal.
Engaging in almost daily combat with the enemy from 9 October to
19 November 1942, Capt. Foss personally shot down 23 Japanese
planes and damaged others so severely that their destruction was
extremely probable. In addition, during this period, he
successfully led a large number of escort missions, skillfully
covering reconnaissance, bombing, and photographic planes as well
as surface craft. On 15 January 1943, he added 3 more enemy planes
to his already brilliant successes for a record of aerial combat
achievement unsurpassed in this war. Boldly searching out an
approaching enemy force on 25 January, Capt. Foss led his 8 F-4F
Marine planes and 4 Army P-38s into action and, undaunted by
tremendously superior numbers, intercepted and struck with such
force that 4 Japanese fighters were shot down and the bombers were
turned back without releasing a single bomb. His remarkable flying
skill, inspiring leadership, and indomitable fighting spirit were
distinctive factors in the defense of strategic American positions
on Guadalcanal.
[Note: we left a voice page for America West's Corporate
Communications, inviting their response. Ms. Nowack called back,
but she said didn't yet have enough information to get specific
about this January 11 incident. "Obviously, security is taken very
seriously," she said. She moved responsibility to the FAA: "The FAA
has guidelines that every airline has to follow. Everybody has to
go through the same sorts of security measures. This is to ensure
security of the planes and the people on the planes. That's taken
very seriously, and we have to abide by that."
Please keep in mind: this type of problem, while it hasn't yet
surfaced on every carrier, will -- unless the public demands a
little common sense, and unless the screeners have some to begin
with, and are allowed to use it --ed.]
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