Double-amputee Marine humiliated by TSA in Phoenix

UPDATE TSA releases video of how Marine was treated

Double-amputee Marine humiliated by TSA
Published time: March 19, 2013

It’s bad enough that a US Marine lost both his legs in combat. But after TSA agents forced the wheelchair-bound man to stand up, walk and remove his prosthetic legs at an airport in Phoenix, he was publicly humiliated for his disability.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration this week, condemning TSA officers for mistreating the wounded soldier on March 13. The Marine, who is still on active duty, had lost both of his legs in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast while deployed. The man is now confined to a wheelchair. He showed up at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with an escort that helped him get around.

In his complaint addressed to TSA Administrator John Pistole, Hunter said that the agency made the Marine feel “humiliated.”

“The individual escorting this Marine asked the TSA officer which of the two checkpoints to enter and received the response, ‘either one,’ only to be told moments later they should have entered a different way,” Hunter explained in his letter.

Moments later, TSA officers ordered the wounded Marine to get out of his wheelchair and subsequently remove his prosthetic legs, subjecting him to immense pain while he struggled to get out of his wheelchair.

“A TSA officer asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own,” Hunter wrote. “With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on, only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficult, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives.”
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