SAMC

[SewTexas]

Went to SAMC today. Background, and why I've been missing for the last couple of weeks. Robert had a bad accident on his motorcycle a couple of weeks ago. He's been working in Austin, riding back and forth from here, San Antonio, to Austin everyday. They airlifted him to SAMC, because of traffic and because they really weren't sure how bad his back was injured. Turns out he's actually doing really well. A compression fracture to a lower vertebrae and some bumps and bangs, can limp around a bit. God was watching over him closely, the accident was bad....really.
Anyway, he's got an appt with a civilian doc to take a look at his knee tomorrow, so we needed to go to BAMC to get copies of his x-rays and CT's. Got there and they've changed the "getting in" policy, starting TODAY. If you don't have a military ID you have to get a "pass". So, we went to the visitor center, signed in and waited 45 mins to get called up to desk, I'm the driver so the guy comes back hands me back our ID's and starts tell me "CHL's aren't an acceptable ID and you can't have your weapon with you...." I look at our ID's, nope, I didn't give him a CHL...I said, "I'm going onto a military base, I know not to take a weapon, you don't need to know weather I have a CHL or not, thank you for the pass, good bye."
Maybe I over-reacted, maybe it's because of the 45 min wait, and I knew it was already pushing Robert and we still had to go into the clinic and wait more for the x-rays, but dang, that just made me mad that rent-a-cops were scanning DL's and had access my information, that's just not right. I protect that. I don't tell everyone and their boyfriend and he was yelling it out to the waiting room.
At the end of it all, we ended up spending more time waiting for the pass than we did for the x-rays, but we got copies of everything. So if we can find a good spine Doc in San Antonio we probably won't even go back for his 6 week check up with them.



I don't know if this is the right place for this or if I should just put it in Off Topic....mods, feel free to move it if you want.

[jmorris]

I'm a federal employee. Last week I was working late and in my rush to get out left my CAC (federal ID/smart card) in my keyboard. I stopped in the visitor's center the next morning to get a temp pass. The SP had two computers at his station. I gave him my DL, he turned to one computer, did his thing and my pass started printing. He then turned to the other computer and entered my info again. He looked up at me and asked "You don't have a weapon on you do you Sir?" "Excuse me?" "TDEx shows that you have a CHL."

So that is probably what happened with you. The SP said that the JBSA bases (Lackland, Randolph, and Fort Sam) have had TDEx access at the visitor center for about a year. He also mention that in the year there's been three-four pops at our visitor center on outstanding warrants when they've processed a visitor pass. Needless to say it's one very surprised visitor when the police show up.

On the bright side, this was another education opportunity for me. I don't actually work on base, I work off-base in a leased facility with SPs and Federal Police from Lackland as gate guards and the visitor center. Except for specific federal law (such as 18-930) Texas law has jurisdiction over the parking lot and facility and I have a memo from the Judge Advocate to back that up. And because of this we are *not* part of JBSA so command policies aren't in effect. So whenever I get asked that question I get to educate a new SP/FP that yes, I can have a weapon in my car in the parking lot.

[Javier730]

I used to work in bases here in Texas long before I had my chl. After getting another job off the base, my badge had expired so I went to the visitor center to get a day pass after having to do some business in Lackland. I went to the visitor center and gave my id when I was called and told they would call me back up. I sat about 30 seconds when the airman in the front desk called my name. I stood up and walked toward the desk which is only a few feet away from the chairs. Before I could get there, he asked loudly, "Do you have you weapon on you? Because we do not allow concealed handguns on the base." I got my id and said i was not carrying. He then asked, "Is your weapon in your vehicle?" I said "No." He then said, "you cannot have firearms in your vehicle either." I told him i was aware of that, signed my pass and walked back to the chairs. One of the guys said, "Oh darn, you carry a gun? Remind me not to piss him off."

It was pretty upsetting. Besides my family and my current boss, none no one knows I carry and I would of liked to kept it that way. There was about 4 people there that were getting sponsored with me and now they all know I carry and so do anyone they told and so on.

[pushpullpete]

SewTexas, Best Wishes for Robert, glad to hear that it turned out better than first thought. Any motorcycle accident can be bad, after almost 50 years & a couple hundred thou miles off & on of being on 2 wheels I have been down a 'couple times'. It really is alot of fun, wheels down of course not the other way around. Hopefully he will have a speedy and easy recovery . The callout in a room full of people was not really necessary but then again some people feel a need to show their superiority to make themselves feel better. Deep breath and Take Care.

[ELB]

SewTexas, best wishes to Robert and your whole family, sorry to hear of his accident, hope for a speedy recovery.

As to the feds getting access to the Texas DL-CHL link... so much for the confidentiality of CHL records. I have to say this rubs me the wrong way. Singling out people because they have warrants is one thing, doing it because they have legally acquired a handgun license is wrong. (Which is exactly the problem with the requirement to inform as well).

Aside from the backwards approach of the military in clamping down on legal gun possession while doing nothing that actually stops the Major Hasans (the old "when someone does something bad, go after the ones who didn't do it" train of thought), there is an information security issue here.

Who in DPS agreed to provide this computer link and why?

Did they not require the DoD to provide the same safeguards for the confidentiality of licensee info that Texas law requires?

When a Security Forces member (or any other Federal) military or contractor or civil servant accesses that information in the course of his duties it seems that he should be bound by same rules as DPS not to release it except for legally authorized purposes, and I can't imagine blurting it out in a room full of random people waiting for passes qualifies as "authorized."

If DPS did not require the same safeguards of the Feds when it agreed to provide this computer access then it somebody at DPS needs to be punished (and the link severed until such assurances are obtained).

If the Feds did agree to safeguard the info, then someone (the State of Texas) needs to read the Security Forces the riot act about following the law, and follow it up with reprimands for some people. (Not that that will ever happen, but it should).

I should think the Legislature should be interested in this subject as well...

[RPBrown]

SewTexas, I pray that Robert fully recovers without too much pain. As a fellow rider that has been down in the past, I know the trials that will be coming. Not sure if he has much road rash, but if so, that can be the most painful for a few weeks.

I do work at the NASJRB in Ft. Worth. My ID was about to expire so I went through all of the hoops to renew it. When I went to pick up the new badge, the lady came to the door, called my name and asked for 2 forms of ID (which I Knew they would). I handed her my DL and Passport. Her comment was "oh, I figured you would use your CHL as your second form of ID". The problem is, it is a n open area with only a counter between us and the waiting room full of people so everyone that was listening for their names could have heard. I was quite surprised to say the least.

On another note, last year I had 3 new guys go to the base to do a job. One got in, one got turned away due to a past felony, and one was cuffed and stuffed never to be heard from by me again. Never did find out what he was wanted for. Background check I had run did not show anything on any of them but come to find out, it was a state check only and did not cover out of state offenses. I have since changed background checking companies to do this.

[SewTexas]

Thank you for the good thoughts and prayers for Robert, guys. Yesterday was a crazy day. I think everything sort of caught up with us. We've been having some difficulty with insurance and getting him into a Ortho for his knee and I walked into our auto agent's office, sat down and cried....I guess it worked, he got the answers we needed. Now, if we could just get a Dr's office to call us back....do Dr's not need patients anymore??? geez....the customer service in the medical industry this town stinks...

[K.Mooneyham]

I'm very sorry to hear about the accident, and I hope he gets better soon.

I'm a Civil Service aircraft mechanic at a base in Oklahoma. So, normally I use my CAC (common access card) to get on the base. The first couple of weeks, I used my military "retiree" ID. So, thankfully, I've never had any hassles about CHL, etc. That said, being a "retired" E-7, I would have a hard time not getting very irritated if I was questioned about bringing a firearm onto a base. I'm sure many people would say something like "they're just doing their job". However, unless they have some reason to think you've violated Federal law, they really should keep those sort of comments to themselves.

[Abraham]

SewTexas,

Once you and Robert have completed everything that needs to be done to get him healthy again, you might consider discussing the blabber mouth event with whoever may be in authority... They may very well be interested in stopping these petty tyrants and glad stop this nonsense.

Verbally blasting out confidential information for all the world to hear is way out of bounds.

I know if I'm ever to experience such a thing, I would work diligently work to put a stop to it.

Would I prevail?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

But it's better to light a candle than to the curse the darkness...

Good luck to you both!