[OT] USA - TSA Obstructing Armed Pilots?

All -

I'm especially interested in comments from any of the "current and
former military pilots with top-secret clearances" (as mentioned below)
that might be out there.

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Where are the armed pilots?
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By Tracy W. Price
Washington Post, 12 December 2003

On Nov. 25, 2002, President Bush signed the Arming Pilots Against
Terrorism Act. The law compelled the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) to train and arm airline pilots who volunteered for
the program. One year later, many Americans believe that large numbers
of airline pilots are now carrying guns. Sadly, they are wrong.
On Aug. 26, the TSA gleefully reported that far fewer airline
pilots have volunteered for the armed pilot program than pilot groups
estimated might volunteer. Currently, only a few thousand pilots have
volunteered for the program out of about 100,000 that are eligible. The
large majority of Americans who support arming airline pilots might
rightfully ask: Where are the volunteers? The answer to the question is
really quite simple.
The TSA has very intentionally and successfully minimized the
number of volunteers through thinly veiled threats and by making the
program difficult and threatening to get into.
Airline pilots practice their profession at the pleasure of the
federal government. Airline Captains must hold an airline transport
pilot's certificate (ATP) issued by the FAA. To gain the experience
required by a major airline, a pilot must have thousands of flight hours
amassed over many years. Once hired by an airline, pilots are required
to demonstrate their proficiency in four-hour long sessions in flight
simulators twice each year. Annually, airline pilots will receive a
"line check" in which "check pilots" ride in the cockpit and evaluate
the crew's performance. Several times each year, FAA examiners — without
notice — show up to give pilots a check ride. Twice each year, airline
captains are required to report to FAA-designated physicians for a
physical and psychological exam. Medical history is evaluated and a
physical exam with exacting standards is performed. FAA doctors are
trained to ask probing questions, looking for any sign of psychological
instability, stress or depression. Failing to meet the standard for any
of these evaluations will, of course, result in immediate removal from
the flying schedule and loss of any opportunity to be employed as a pilot.
Now, fresh with this backdrop of the professional life of an
airline pilot, consider the armed pilot program that the TSA has
constructed. Understand that the TSA is opposed to the armed pilot
program. Last year, the TSA granted itself the power to revoke a pilot's
ATP if it deems him to be a security threat. Pilots who volunteer for
training to carry guns must complete a very detailed, 13-page
application and submit to a three-hour written psychological exam
probing into the most private workings of any person: his thoughts,
feelings, opinions and emotions. Pilots who pass this
government-sponsored psychological strip-search are then ordered to
report to a government psychologist for a one-on-one "interview."
For the pilots that finally make it into training, they will have
to travel at their own expense to and pay for their own room and board
in Artesia, N.M. Artesia is a four-hour drive from El Paso, Texas, the
nearest city.
Airline pilots evaluate the totality of the TSA's armed-pilot
program and they have declined to participate in droves. Too many
airline pilots view the TSA armed pilot program as a potentially career
threatening fiasco that will cost each pilot who volunteers at least one
week of flight pay and require him to bare his soul to an out-of-control
government agency that hates the idea of armed pilots. Couple this with
the breathtaking failure of many current and former military pilots with
top-secret clearances to pass the TSA psychological evaluations and
pilots are saying, "No, thanks."
To justify their intrusive tactics, the TSA says, "We need to make
sure that each pilot we allow to fly armed can use the gun to kill
terrorists and then be calm enough to land safely." In other words, We
think that you'd be better off dead. Obviously, pilots won't volunteer
for the program in the first place unless they are willing to use a gun.
Moreover, if a pilot is "screened out" of the program by the TSA
psychological soothsayers and terrorists attack his cockpit, the outcome
is very certain: He, all of his passengers and possibly many thousands
on the ground will soon be dead. A logical armed-pilot program would not
be looking for ways to screen pilots out; it would be looking for ways
to encourage more volunteers.
We have endured almost two years of TSA searches of law-abiding
citizens, yet recent news reports show that al Qaeda operatives remain
interested in targeting airliners. Nothing the TSA has done thus far has
sufficiently deterred al Qaeda. Embarrassed by a college student who
easily snuck knives on board airliners, the TSA now plans to use
technology that will "see through" each passenger's clothing and present
them naked to the government screeners.
Further violation of our rights is not the answer, but hardening
the target is the answer. Congress should take all discretion about
which pilots get into the armed-pilot program away from the TSA, just as
36 states have done with "Shall Issue" concealed carry laws.

Capt. Tracy W. Price flies Boeing 737s for a major airline and is the
former chairman of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance.

Copyright © 2003 News World Communications, Inc.