Military ID not good enough Homeland Security?

Change in policy leaves military man on the dock when cruise ship leaves port


By: Shannon Cake

"He can serve in Afghanistan, fly through different countries with his military I.D., but to go to the Bahamas on a cruise line is not acceptable?" Fontane demanded. "It's upsetting...it's upsetting."

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - In June, Jupiter mom Melissa Fontane got the phone call she had been wanting to hear. It was a call informing her that her son, serving with the 101st Airborne Division, would be returning home for a break.

"I wanted to do something special for him," Fontane said. "He was coming home for a leave of absence and this was a celebration cruise on Celebration cruise line."

The single mom of two grown boys cashed in several days of vacation, pulled her other son out of college, and called to book their family getaway on Celebration, a ship that docks in the Port of Palm Beach. Fontane had one concern before she paid for the weekend cruise.

"I told them at that time my son had active military I.D. and did not have a birth certificate," Fontane recalls. "The agent got off the phone, asked several other people, came back on the phone and said active military I.D., no problem!"

Fontane and her boys showed up July 2nd ready to sail.

"Two hours in line with suitcases dragging along behind us. By the time I got up to the front of the line, my son and I showed our passport and my other son shows his military I.D.," Fontane said. "That's when she says, it's no good. He can't go with that."

The Department of Homeland Security had just changed its policy just a few weeks earlier. No longer was a military I.D. enough to board a cruise ship and sail to the Bahamas for a weekend away.
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