In the Pit, I’ve accused posters of being hyperbolic with their descriptions of airport security. Particularly here:
I’ve never seen a soldier doing security in an airport. The only time I’ve ever seen a soldier with a weapon, they were traveling like other passengers. And the time before that, it was my unit. But we never actually went into the airport. We drove from the parking lot to the terminal, specifically to avoid being seen by the public. Taking a quick, nonscientific office poll, it doesn’t seem like anyone has ever seen this either. If this has ever happened (and I’m sure it has), it had to be years ago. Most likely directly after 9/11. And perhaps only in a few airports.
So, how long’s it been since you’ve seen a soldier working security in a US airport, and which airport was it?
But admittedly, I don’t fly a lot, and when I do, it’s usually out of Albany International. If Albany needs to be protected with armed guards…we got bigger troubles.
8 years ago, about 6 months after 9/11, out of Logan. Camo + M-16 made me think soldier, not cop. Most likely Nat. Guard though - he looked a little long in the tooth for active duty.
I flew into Charleston, S.C. a few weeks after 9-11-01, and there were South Carolina National Guardsmen toting M-16s in the airport. Never since then.
We visited Washington, D.C. this past summer, though, and there was a security officer dressed entirely in black standing on the east steps of the U.S. Capitol. I didn’t see any badges, but assume he was with the Capitol Police. He had an M4. I have to say, I didn’t like seeing a weapon so openly brandished there - not a very welcoming image for “the people’s house.”
I haven’t actually been inside an airport in three years (I’ve been to three of them in that period to pick up friends), but I worked at Orlando International Airport (on the pre-security side) from January-May 2007. I saw at least one armed and on-duty soldier pretty much every day during that period.
Of course, since there were 260 National Guardsmen on long-term assignment there, this is not particularly surprising.
ETA: I just realized I flew into Dulles in December '08, and I’m almost certain there were armed soldiers there too.
Seen plenty of MPs doing security work with machine guns at the ready on and around Schiphol airport at least since 1999 or so. Spotted two a week ago. They tend to keep back.
ETA: oops, US airport. Then, no: I’ve never been in the US.
There were two on the Capitol steps when I was there in '08 carrying (Barrett, I think) sniper rifles. They were wearing insignias at the waist, though. One posed for a picture with us!
They were putting up the bleacher/stand things for the inauguration ceremony at the time, and Congress was in session, but it was still odd.
There are constantly armed National Guardsmen in Manhattan’s Port Authority Bus Terminal. And I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them at Newark. They aren’t in full battle gear or anything. Usually they just seem to be standing around in little clumps with their sidearms holstered.
I flew into Atlanta a few months ago and the airport was full of soldiers. But most of them appeared to be travelling to or from somewhere.
On a completely unrelated topic, do soldiers not travel wearing dress uniforms anymore?
I went with 8 years, but I don’t fly too often … I think I’ve taken one flight since then.
It was 3 months after 9/11 and I got the full show. I had forgotten to grab my wallet and ID and keys and everything from the little tray you put your shit in to go through the metal detectors. I’d only figured out that I left my stuff there once I got to my gate. So I went running back through the terminal to get my stuff before they shipped it off to lost and found.
“HALT!”
Weapons, not pointed, but brandished. I was dragged aside and jacked up against the wall for the full on frisking. They were surprisingly gentle when they cupped my sack – I’ll give that to them.
Anyway, I got stuck at the check point for about a half an hour. In the end, they bought my story and let me go and I didn’t miss my flight. But for a minute there, I thought I was going to get a round between the eyes.
Weird. The only time I can definitively recall armed guards in an airport was flying out of Albany three weeks after 9/11. I feel like I have seen them since, but I can’t say for sure.
I voted 1 year only because there was no option for “Just last month.” But now I’m wondering. I did see soldiers at JFK, but I don’t think that they were working the actual security station. I’m pretty sure that they had guns, but now I’m questioning my memory on that too.
The last true memory I had of soldiers brandishing weapons was in December of 2001.
Shortly after 9/11 there was some National Guard troops at the front of Burlington National Airport (Vermont) apparently manning some sort of rudiculously large vehicle mounted machine gun type thing aimed out at the parking-lot.
That was probably the silliest over-reaction I saw to 9/11, the idea that Osama Bin Laden was going to target Burlington Airport, and do it in such a way that heavy machine gun might stop him was pretty amusing. One pictures wave after wave of terrorists charging across the parking lot at the airport, only to be mowed down in a rain of bullets.
New York’s Penn Station as well. They wear fatigues and I have seen them with rifles, but sidearms are more common. Penn is also patrolled by something-sniffing dogs (drugs? bombs?) that belong to the NYPD.
There were armed security personnel at the gate when I was flying about a month ago. Like Dinsdale, I’m not sure there’s a significant difference between soldiers and cops in this case. I suppose I’d expect the soldiers to be better trained.
