This afternoon I checked in for a flight to Paris on IcelandAir. Checking in for boarding took a while because of COVID documents, but once I had a boarding pass, there was almost no line for security.
When I approached the screening area, I told the guy at the metal detector that I would need the alternative screening. I said,"I have metal here, here and here" pointing to my neck, left knee and left elbow. James, the TSA screener, said "Go ahead and try anyway." I did. The alarm sounded and I waited for the technician to check me. After I put my arms over my head in the plexiglass booth, James came over to do the pat down. The technician was a woman and could not do the hands-on check.
When James walked over I held my arms out straight to my sides. He said, "You don't need to do that, you're not an airplane."
'And you are a native New Yorker,' I thought.
Then he said, "You got metal all over the place, was it shrapnel from a war?"
"As a matter of fact, in 1973......"
"No way," he said. "You were in 'Nam? I was there during the Tet Offensive. '68. Radio man."
"I managed to get blinded by shrapnel in a missile explosion in America," I said. "Live fire test."
"That sucks," he said. "No Purple Heart, right?"
"Right?" I said. Then I told him about my fingers hanging off and getting re-attached. With professional curiosity and gloved hands, he checked the first fingers on my right hand.
He then told me about his communications site being surrounded, then the North Vietnamese went around his bunker and moved on. "I was sure I was dead," James said.
We fist bumped then waved as he went back to the check-in line.
I have talked to many TSA agents who were Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. I don't remember a lot of Vietnam War veterans. Certainly not recently. But it was fun to talk with him.
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