Those Marines were screwed over by the airport. Their excuse of a "secuirty concern" is just that....an excuse.
Those Marines had been screened when they got on the plane in Kuwait. They were allowed to get off the plane in New York. Oaklands "excuse" that they weren't screened in New York is a bunch of crap. You don't have to go through security unless you leave the terminal and then return to get on a flight. Those Marines didn't leave the terminal in New York so they were already "in the system". One report I read said the Oakland airport didn't want them in the terminal because they were carrying weapons on the airplane.....well DUHHH!!!!!!! They are Marines. That's their job.
They were also flying on a commercial passenger plane, not a cargo plane.
The military screening process for returning soldiers is alot more intrusive than anything a civilian has to go through. I know when I returned from Desert Storm I had to dump everything I had out on a table and let the MP's dig through all my stuff. All the flights I have taken in my life and that one was the most intensive security screening I have ever been through.
Oakland snubbed our guys and now they're trying to justify it with a bunch of crap. The fact that this happened in the bay area doesn't surprise me at all.
Oh and AquaShrimp, if you think that the spitting on Vietnam vets didn't happen, I wish you could have talked to my dad and mom. He was a loadmaster on C-141's during the end of the war based out of Travis AFB. All the KIA's from Vietnam flew through Travis when they were brought home and my dad flew on many of those flights. I heard stories from him and my mom about protesters outside the gates at Travis spitting at him in his truck when he'd leave the base. My mom confirmed those stories. You can believe what you want, but I'll take their word for it any day.
