Politics & Government
Former Camp Pendleton Marine, Purple Heart Earner, Claims TSA Harassment
Cpl. Nathan Kemnitz, 29, was in Sacramento recently to be honored for his service in Iraq, which included him earning a Purple Heart, among other medals.
A former Camp Pendleton Marine, who was wounded in Iraq in 2004, is making headlines after he claims he was harassed by TSA workers at the Sacramento International Airport, and security personnel at the state capitol.
Cpl. Nathan Kemnitz, 29, was in Sacramento recently to be honored for his service in Iraq, which included him earning a Purple Heart, among other medals.
However, upon his entering the building, Kemnitz claims a routine security check became something more.
He says security guards insisted that he remove his "dress blues" uniform jacket because it had too much metal on it. Kemnitz, who was injured by a roadside IED in Baghdad nine years ago, says this is a difficult task, since mobility in his right arm is now severely limited.
“At first, I was a little shocked and then it went to ridiculous,” Kemnitz said in an interview with CBS LA. “It’s almost like they wanted to make a show, like we will search anybody, we don’t care.”
Kemnitz, a Pasadena resident, was travelling with Patti Martin of the Veterans Resource Center, who took photos of the alleged harassement.“They never asked for his military ID to verify whether he was a veteran, if that’s what they were worried about, and they took him to the side, and the way they were patting him down, it was so obvious, as if he was a potential terrorist,” Martin told the news station.
Kemnitz said he faced further humiliation at the Sacramento airport, when TSA officers gave the wounded veteran a hard time for not being able to lift his arms above his head at the security gate's full-body scanner.
TSA issued a statement following the incident: "...TSA has long recognized the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform and will reach out to this passenger to ensure his future travels are as simple as possible,” according to CBS LA.
Kemnitz said he wants to share his story so that hopefully other veterans won't face the same ridicule after returning home from service to their country.
“They come home and get treated this way, I would lose respect for my country,” he told the news station.
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