[url]http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/31/MN112014.DTL[/url]

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[b]SFO security adds insult to soldier's injury
Medical tool confiscated despite his reliance on it[/b]

Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer   Friday, May 31, 2002  

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Army Lt. Greg Miller thought he'd seen the end of conflict for a while the day he left Afghanistan with his jaw wired shut from a bullet wound.

But Miller found himself in a new conflict Wednesday afternoon at San Francisco International Airport, this time with security screeners who insisted that the wire clippers he carried to snap his jaw open in an emergency could not go on the airplane -- a battle he still can't quite believe he lost.

"What I think it is, is a lack of common sense," Miller said Thursday from his home in College Station, Texas.

Miller, 36, a combat medic and member of a 12-man special forces patrol, was awarded the Purple Heart for his wounded jaw. He flew to the Bay Area last week to visit his mother, Jan Hardison, ho lives in Millbrae.

He also wanted to visit and thank some of the students of Millbrae School District, where his mother is administrative assistant to the superintendent.

[b]NOTES FROM STUDENTS[/b]
The students had sent bundles of letters to Miller after he was injured in Kandahar in April. A bullet passed through his jaw, sliced through nerves and left him without feeling in his mouth.

"If I had to pay somebody to shoot me that well, I couldn't have done it," he said.

Miller was airlifted to a hospital in Germany, where his jaw was wired shut.

His doctor issued him a pair of wire clippers with orders to carry them at all times, in case he becomes sick and must snip his jaw open to avoid choking.

Miller said it occurred to him that the clippers might pose a problem for airline screeners in post-Sept. 11 America. So when he flew to San Francisco last week, he said, he asked security personnel at his local airport whether the snips were prohibited on board.

They weren't, he was told, and airport personnel gave him a sticker saying as much to affix to the clips.


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[url]http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/31/MN112014.DTL[/url]

Profiling?...We don't need no stinking profiling.

Do you even know her?

I feel " safer" now..

thank you Federal employee/Airport Ninja

Just another reason why I will not fly unless I have orders.
The shitbag security screener should be fired with out question. Not one shred of common sense! Had the LT had an incident where he got sick and had to cut his jaw open, the airport would have been sued big time.

I would rather drive until such time that the #@! idiots in the airline industry get there act together. I would feel a heck of a lot LESS safe on airliner today than I would have pre 9/11.

I think it will be a long ways off before I actually pay for an airline ticket again!

HAHAHAH

Yes, but that securty guy went home safe to his family.  That's the important part.z

At least one got it.

I read it so fast I missed it.  Who's Millbrae?