USVI-On-Line

Since there was some confusion, and conflicting opinions/answers, and since I had not heard this straight from my nephew, only second hand from my brother, I thought I'd go straight to the horse's mouth and ask Ryan himself. Here's what I sent him:

Hey Ryan,

Bruce told me about you guys having to discard your "dangerous" liquids before boarding the plane to fly from Maine to Georgia.

If I heard him correctly, on the same flight that your liquids, gels, etc. were taken from you, you were allowed to carry your M16s onto the plane. Is that correct? If so, was this a military, charter, or commercial flight? Some people I have related this story to have asked people that they know, and have told me that this can't possibly be true.


Here's his reply:

Unfortunately this is true. NAVY, let me say again- NAVY customs did not allow shampoos, shaving cream, freakin' NAIL FILES on the same plane as 150 guys with M4s and I even had a 40mm grenade launcher attached to mine.It was a chartered flight but navy freakin' customs wouldn't let this stuff on the flight.

Idiots. Oh well.

Amazing!

Hi All:

My hubby was in the Army for 12 years and did a tour in Iraq the first time. I asked him about this topic and this is what he told me....

He carried his weapons (knives, M16, 9MM, etc.) both to Iraq and home from. They were on a Commerical Airline (747 to be exact) that was chartered by the Army. There were no civilians on the plane. They were allowed their liquids & gels but that was before 9/11.

He said that as a soldier he was responsible for all the gear he was issued and that included his weapons.

XOXO
Bug

So, what we have learned here is that the Navy can keep their weapons on planes, but the Army can not. What does this mean?

In all seriousness, my BIL's rides home have been on commercial flights with civilians. He takes a military plane from Iraq to Kuwait, then boards a regular civilian plane home from there. My guess is that this explains the difference in the responses.

I'm certain that the biggest difference is the one between charter and commercial flights.

FWIW, my nephew is in the Army. I'm sure that's one reason that he was so agrieved at the Navy screeners...