h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Icy I think they were probably more interested in the fact that someone had had access to the interior workings of your car.

I remember after the things in Osnabrück & Roermond checking my car and still having a brief pause before turning the key in the ignition thinking "is this going to be the last thing I ever do?"

It always surprises me at airports and stations just how many bags and things are just sitting there without any apparent owners. It makes me nervous. (although on a recent trip to the UK my suitcase was by the door and I was in the next seat when suddenly the ticket collector and another uniformed person ran up all flustered and started a conflab with the guy sitting behind me. It took a few minutes to realise he'd called them about my bag. So good that he was alert, but you'd think he'd have asked around first?

The paranoia causes more harm than the explosives ever could. It's just harder to see.

Paranoia, Mr. X? I wonder...
Were you in the Services? Have you ever been directly involved in Security?

Paranoia in these days ... I wonder...

Quote......"So good that he was alert, but you'd think he'd have asked around first?"

I suppose they thought that no self respecting terrorist would hang about to answer such questions?

I lost a suit case full of my "civvies" in a London train station, while making my way home on leave from the R.N. back in the 70s.

Luckily I took the police mans advice, and didn't go back for it, after the bomb threat was phoned in

The really annoying thing was, that the Navy only rein burst me for the suit case (government issue) and not for the contents, as there was no uniform inside it?

Smudger.

"Paranoia, Mr. X? I wonder...
Were you in the Services? Have you ever been directly involved in Security?"

No, but I've been unfairly profiled as a criminal. A lot.

It's the striped jersey and referring to Mr X in the third person a lot that does it.

An interesting asside, sometime in the late eighties, or early nineties I had a job to put stair and balcony hand rail around three enlisted barracks at Mac Dill Air Force Base in south Tampa.

It was during the reign of Gorbachev, if that helps. Anyway I had a draftsman (draughtsman for the UK spell checker) who was a Russian national. He turned pale When I unrolled the blueprint in front of him!

'Are you sure I am allowed to look at this?'

'sure', I said, 'we need to let them know what our project will look like.'

'I could maybe count the number of rooms, and toilets and report how many men might be stationed there!'

I assured him it was a very large base, and the occupancy of three small buildings did not really effect national security. Reluctantly he produced the drawings.

Several months later the project was complete and we had to 'punch out' our work. That is contractor speak for correct any minor problems so that you can get paid.

All of the normal field people were engaged on other projects, so the manager came to me and asked if I could supervise the work. I was told I could take any other five employees I wanted as that was the passenger limit for the company truck I would use. Yes, my Russian found himself a part of the crew.

Arriving at the main gate I had to apply for a pass to drive onto the base. I had to show my valid driver's license, the trucks registration and insurance. There was not a single question about who else was traveling with me, although I
did sign a form stating that I would be responsible for their conduct.

This was all prior to 9/11

I have had a half dozen or so occasions to visit the base after the events in New York. To say the security has been increased is a major understatement!

Contractors have to pass a full security screen, that can take several months, and are issued special badges for access. If I arrive to spend an hour or two taking measurements, I not only have to present all of the forms as before, But I have to have a contractor with a badge come to the entry station and vouch for my legitimate business on the base. All passengers are equally inspected. There is also a vehicle inspection at the gates.

F S

Are you still responsible for any subsequent conduct by him, or the spies he's told about the base design?

That wouldn't have happened at any of the bases I worked in even pre-9/11.

Once part of my job was to test security. I dressed as a Russian officer and one of the men working with me dressed as a Russian para (they're good for this kind of thing due to the striped t-shirt thing they wear/wore under their uniform) and we worked round a rather big HQ once without being stopped having entered with a fake ID.

After that it took us ages to get into work because everything was being checked

"In Soviet Russia, security checks you!"

Sounded better in my head...

"Visit Russia, before Russia Visits You"

I had a t-shirt with "Visit the Soviet Union before the Soviet Union visits you" on it in English and Russian.
But my Colonel told me I wasn't allowed to wear it anywhere near where I worked

When I was an au pair in Mannheim in the early 70s I joined the Girl Scouts at the local USAF base. Once I had to attend a meeting which was inside the security area. I smiled at the guard at the gate and explained I was with the Girl Scout leaders who were meeting in a bunker somewhere on the base.

They let me in past the barbed wire fence fairly easily. I got lost trying to find the meeting room, and wandered about for a bit, and eventually left and went home without ever finding the other women, but I wasn't apprehended and asked for ID. It was fairly scary, but I was in no danger at any time. (It would probably have been harder to get into the PX, though.) Can't compare it to nowadays, because all the bases have packed up and gone home, although I remember post 9/11 going to one of the last enclaves of the US military in Heidelberg for an AmDram performance and being quite thoroughly checked, and having to give them my Passport Number a week before going.

Recently I was talking to someone whose son - a classmate of my youngest - is in Mexico. She once flew to visit him via an airport in the States. She said she's never. EVER. going to do that again - the security checks were so humiliating and demeaning. She'll fly straight to Mexico, however inconvenient it is.

Are many people opting out of travelling to the US because of this, I wonder?

One of my colleagues was driving to work on the MoD base, eating his breakfast as he went (as you do). As he approached the barrier he patted his pockets, realising he'd left his pass at home. In a stroke of brilliance, he waved a piece of toast with lime marmalade at the guards, and got waved through.

I visited Saint Petersburg last July as part of a singing group. We were told not to go out alone in public, as we would be robbed. Our accompanist actually was robbed when we visited one of the palaces outside the city .

We were lucky that we went when we did. Now that the Russians have reclaimed Crimea, who knows what stumbling blocks would be placed n our paths* if we tried to go now?


*Apart from Russia's cumbersome process for visa application

>> Are many people opting out of travelling to the US <<

YES. Shortly after 9/11 we in Canada started hearing
horror stories of revamped security that was arbitrary,
demeaning and humiliating - in some cases very costly
in terms of seized personal property including vehicles.

I had always planned to spend a lot of my retirement touring
across the US visiting famous race tracks and auto museums,
but the idea of young (otherwise unemployable) men armed
with pistols and rubber gloves and patriotic fervour turned
this dream to dust. I allowed my passport to lapse.

This winter has been so long, snowbound and cold that I have
lately been having second thoughts and may have to go through
the hoops to get a new passport for next year - and try to route
a vacation over US airspace to Jamaica, Mexico or Cuba.


~jwf~

Back in 1999 I was working in Baku on the Caspian Sea, it was around that time when all the states wanted independence they gave me a "Russian" interpreter to help with my job as a welding instructor.

He only lasted about an hour, before he had to leave, as they were going to linch him?

I managed the job without him anyway.

Smudger.

In my post 27 I mentioned MacDill Air Force Base, Let me explain, this is not just a military post, but a city in its own rite. Thousands of people visit each day, some are working and other go for shopping and medical care (retired or off duty military people and their families). My wife's father was retired military and they usually went there at least once or twice a month, if someone is sick they might go every day.

All of the secure areas of the base have their own guards. When I was working there in the 90's the back gate had no guard, just a secure box where you dropped off your paper pass before leaving for the day. Today MacDill is the home of Central Command, as well as a re-fuelling wing of air craft.

One of the most recent times I was there I had to use the 'Construction Entrance' where cars and trucks can be more closely inspected. I had carelessly left one of my living history officer's coat lying on the back seat. The guard spotted it and I had to explain what it was. We then had an interesting discussion about reenacting before he waved me onto the base. I promised not impersonate a 150 year old officer

For ~jwf~
In the park where I live we have quite a few Canadian part time residences, the couple across the street told us they can only stay in the states for a maximum of 183 days each year. I don't know if this is a US or Canadian requirement

We have both US and Canadian flags flying at the main entrance.

I work in manufacturing, so I don't really care if the tourists come or not, I am only effcted by the traffic (and Canadian coins that jamb up the vending machines).

When I worked in Miami one of the welders was assigned to translate Cuban Spanish for me. Any time I wanted to ask a question, or give advice, he was expected to stop and assist me.



F S

I'm sorry that my country seems unfriendly to foreign visitors, jwf . Nevertheless, 67 million of them came in 2012, and around 70 million in 2013. So, we aren't doing a very good job of discouraging them . If* I grow a gigantic pumpkin this coming summer, it saddens me that you won't be coming to see it in person .


*That's quite a big if, though. I've never managed to grow a pumpkin larger than 25 pounds. That's a lot of pie material, but it doesn't compare to the pumpkins in Maine that are so big they can be used as boats for races.