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Returning Marines barred from Oakland Airport Terminal

LT Zach mentioned this to me last week when he came home and it's slowly becoming national news now:

Quote:

California airport isolates troops

By Audrey Hudson
October 3, 2007
Troops returning from Iraq were barred from entering the terminal at Oakland (Calif.) International Airport and instead parked 400 yards away — without access to food and bathroom facilities, a soldier reported.

The Sept. 27 incident was the last scheduled stop for fuel and food as the troops returned to their home base in Hawaii.

The situation was brought to the attention of two Republican House members, who are asking the Transportation Department's inspector general to investigate.

"We believe this is not an isolated incident," Rep. John L. Mica of Florida, ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Rep. Tom Petri of Wisconsin, ranking member of the subcommittee on aviation, said in a letter to Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III.

"If this is discovered to be a decision by the airport authority, a recipient of federal funding and operator of a public-use airport, it is simply unacceptable and may be in violation of federal laws and regulations," the lawmakers said.

Source

You can also watch local coverage here.

why weren't they allowed back at the airport?

Quote:

Originally Posted by texas*princess (Post 1532941)

why weren't they allowed back at the airport?

When charter flights pull into an airport, the airline's responsible for getting clearance allowing the passengers to enter the terminal. I'm not sure if the papers were even filed, but officials at the Oakland terminal were very apologetic and claimed it was a misunderstanding. There's footage of that on the video.

It sucks that they weren't allowed because of some technicality, but these guys have been gone for a year at war...and they still weren't welcome.

Zach (he was commander of the flight) mentioned that he's probably on the TSA's shitlist right now.