- "And if I refuse to strip?" I asked the two
women in the little room.
-
- "You'll be held down and your clothes will be removed
from you forcibly," one answered.
-
- This was in U.S. Customs (in this fine free country of
ours) back in the seventies. Our entire airline crew was chosen to, one
by one, go into these small rooms, the men with male Customs agents, the
women with women. Of course it's horribly debasing to be subjected to such
treatment and it was a rude surprise as we had no advance clue. After the
contents of a suitcase was thoroughly inspected, you were quietely asked
to, "Follow me, please."
-
- I was the second or third victim, and I was spitting
tacks once the door was shut and I was ordered to strip. "What for?"
I demanded. "What did I do?"
-
- "Just take off your clothes."
-
- So I wadded up my uniform and threw it with vehemence
onto the floor. At least they would have to pick the damn thing up.
-
- "Now your bra and pantyhose," one of them said.
Again, wadded and thrown. Of Irish descent, I do have a temper and let
me tell you, I was losing it.
-
- They each felt my garments, squeezing every square inch
for all the smuggled rubies and hash-hish that weren't there. "I wouldn't
do this to anybody," I glowered. "Sleep well at night?"
-
- As I exited the room after this unforgivable ordeal,
I bellowed at the rest of the crew, a line of innocents about to be grossly
humiliated, "You guys! They're making us strip!"
-
- A male Customs official, who was standing back, observing,
answered, "You shut up, pick up your bags, and get the hell out of
here!"
-
- "Oh now you're trying to strip my freedom of speech,
too!" I retorted hotly. But I did grab my bags and head for the crew
bus, fuming all the way. Nor did I calm down as the rest of the crew climbed
on board, each shaken and abnormally quiet. We were at Travis AFB, having
just worked a military flight in from Yokota, Japan, a grueling long flight.
Even so, we were to be limo'd, in airline jargon, to our home base in Oakland,
CA, a couple hours drive. Having been out on the line two weeks we were
finally going HOME! Spirits should have been high, and would have been,
had we not just had a taste of 'freedom in America' flung in our faces.
-
- Did Customs in other countries behave in such an abominable
manner? Never in my experience. I flew eight years for a charter, a non-sked
to use a term popular back then, and we went everywhere. I've been to places
a whole lot of people have never even heard of, as well as all over Europe,
Hong Kong, Okinawa, Japan as mentioned, Korea, various countries in South
America as well as Africa, and always had been treated courteously. Only
in the U.S. do Customs agents regularly go overboard, and now, what do
you know, passengers are being given similar treatment, pre-boarding, that
we received at that military base!
-
- Jim Hawley, our captain, seated himself directly in front
of me on the crew bus. We were a couple of miles out of Travis before he
half turned and spoke. I was instantly ready with a comeback, as I believed
he was about to castigate me for being so vociferously out of line back
in Customs.
-
- "This happened to me before," he began softly,
surprising me. "One of the flight attendants didn't declare a diamond,
and Customs found it."
-
- Jim was one of my favorite captains. "A full blooded
Sioux Indian," was how he described himself. Once he took me to dinner
to a posh resstaurant. No strings; he wanted company was all. He used to
get such a kick out of my gutsy big mouth. "You're the type who'd
pass gas in church," he chuckled at dinner that time.
-
- "So they took me, the captain, to set an example.
'Here's what happens when your crew messes with Customs,' right? I had
to disrobe and a doctor was brought in, a regular Nazi. He told me to bend
over. So I tried to protest and he told me to shut-up or he wouldn't use
lubricant."
-
- I told him that that was inexcusable. "I hate their
guts."
-
- Determined not to let the incident rest, at home I penned
a letter to Congressman Clem Miller, whom I'd worked hard as a volunteer
to elect. I figured he owed me an investigation with regard to this abomination
our crew had had to endure.
-
- He must've figured he owed me an investigation, as well,
becuse what he reported back should shock and anger you at once. Turns
out it was a training exercise for "new hire" customs agents.
That's all. We weren't suspected of smuggling, nothing nor no one had tipped
them off.
-
- I'm wondering now, in light of what's been brought to
the fore that has happened to innocent passengers, if a secret camera filmed
us. After all, the two women in the room were young and unsure of themselves;
no supervisor was present. How could they pass their hands-on exam unless
we were in fact filmed, for scrutiny later? Perhaps they even found the
film useful in training other new hires. After all, they chose an airline
crew; young women, all with great figures. Standing there in the altogether,
the dirty so and sos.
-
- "U.S. Customs can do as it likes," Congressman
Miller wrote. "It needs to be monitored but it isn't." He added
that he wanted to affect change, but since he died a short while later,
well.
-
- So, has anything ever changed? Nope. They can still do
to you whatever they like. They can rip apart your suitcase with knives
and never offer a dime recompense. They can stick intruments up your rectum,
as they did to Captain Hawley, or up a woman's vagina. You are at their
complete mercy. Think about that next time you travel and prepare to re-enter
this glorious country.
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