What do you want to be when you grow up Barack? I aint made up my mind yet but, it's either TSA or president.
The TSA is so on the ball that I accidentally brought a loaded magazine in my carry-on with me to Mexico. That was a single-stack of 7 9mm GDHPs. Sometimes I take my bag to the range with me and I simply forgot the mag was in it. So the x-ray machine here in Austin - or I should say x-ray machine operator - didn't catch it. I think the bag is golden. Guess what? When I came back through the airport in Mexico their security caught the magazine. I almost crapped my pants because I have seen the signs in Mexico that read: 1 bullet = 30 days in prison I quickly showed them my military id, which seemed to change the situation. I still had a long talk with the Mexican police, but our governments have an agreement about things like this. I gave the magazine and GDHPs to the head officer as a "gift" and went on our merry way. I learned 2 things that day: 1)ALWAYS CHECK YOUR BAG BEFORE YOU GO ON A TRIP 2)THE TSA SUCK AND HAVE THEIR HEADS UP THEIR BUTTS.
Interesting story, the TSA are pretty bad about catching things they should have. I had a similar experience to djspump2003. I'm a procrastinator, so when I PCS'd from Korea to stateside I procrastinated about scheduling a pack date for the guys to pack my barracks room. Two days before I fly out I have the contractors come and pack everything, and everything that didn't get packed went into my personal ruck or duffel. So I went through two screenings, one in Inchon, and one in Seatle (TSA rescreens every flight from overseas transfering into a domestic. Low and behold when I unpack my ruck I find small arms parts (M16/M249/M9) and a few blank rounds in my pack. I practicly shat a brick and thanked my lucky stars that they where so incompitent. BTW I was a unit armorer, and the reason I had small arms parts in my ruck is stuff (springs and pins, etc...) break all the time in the feild.
Flying from Dallas to Vegas I inadvertently left a small gimee multitool in my carry-on bag that I only realize is there on arrival. I promptly forget about it until I'm in security on the outward leg of the trip and the x-ray screener in Vegas takes a second look at my bag and I suddenly remember again. I'm asked to step aside and tell the inspector I know exactly what the problem is and once they find it advise them to keep it in spite of assurances from the inspector that I can step outside the secure area and mail it to myself. I don't even need to look back at the line I worked my way through to tell them that it means nothing to me and to keep it. I then proceed to wait an hour for my flight without incident...
I had the same thing happen to me, I'd purchased a multi tool to change out a harddrive on my laptop and stuck it in my backpack and promptly forgot about it. I fly out of DFW every week and about 8 trips later, "when I was running late for a flight", I get pulled over by TSA and my multi-tool confiscated. I was okay with it, until the TSA (Line Nazi) called me Chief and started being a smart a$$. There wasn't much I could do about it without missing my flight and they have the power to make life uncomfortable for a traveler. I just told him my name wasn't Chief although I was 1/3 Cherokee and that it was okay to keep the multi-tool and holster for himself or give it to his special partner for Christmas and made my flight. atriot:
Man, I can't even carry my tweezers in my makeup bag in my backpack. Ohh yeah! Me and my Revlon tweezers are taking over!
Funny - or not - for us returning to the states - plenty of my friends have either personal experience or "heard a story" about some Korean military person "planting" a loaded round or some other contraband on their luggage as "a joke." They are rather serious about firearms parts, ammunition, etc...to the extent of actually strip searching you and using the rubber glove to search extremities. They certainly aren't as incompetent as our TSA over there...
Traveling in and through Japan is relatively easy and smooth for us. Its only on outbound flights to US does the process get molasses-slow and restrictive. I've never flown with anything 'gun' here so I have no idea how crazy such an encounter would be. Considering firearms are extremely regulated, I'd say that there's be some serious consequences.
DJS... If you're flying through Osan that is definitely the case. Those AF guys are no joke when they search your bags, pat you down and go through your hard drives (porn is illegal to bring in/out of country as well). But I flew out commercial from Inchon.
