TSA Town Hall Visits Newark Airport
Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) Administrator David
Pekoske traveled to Newark Liberty
International Airport (EWR)
recently and met with the TSA workforce
and conducted one of his regular
virtual town hall meetings,
which was broadcast to agency employees
nationwide.
Pekoske personally spoke with TSA
employees in Newark and responded
to their questions.
Since the beginning of the pandemic,
Pekoske has conducted virtual
town hall meetings with the entire
TSA workforce via live web stream
from the agency’s headquarters. More
recently, he has traveled to airports
where he has spent time engaging with
airport employees and federal air marshals
to see and hear first-hand how
the modifications to TSA checkpoints
and operational policies designed to
contain the spread of COVID-19 have
been implemented. Today marked his
20th virtual town hall meeting.
During today’s virtual town hall,
Pekoske addressed the impact of Hurricane
Laura on TSA employees and
their families along the Gulf Coast of
Texas and Louisiana and he offered
support for those impacted. He also
touched on TSA employees who are in
the line of spreading wildfires in California,
Washington and Colorado.
On the topic of the ongoing pandemic,
Pekoske praised members of
the workforce for their continued vigilance
and encouraged them to continue
to wear gloves, masks and eye
protection in an effort to protect each
other and airline passengers. He also
encouraged them to take necessary
AIRPORT V 16 OICE, SEPTEMBER 2020
precautions to socially distance and
wear masks when they are not at the
airport.
Pekoske told employees that given
the current social climate on topics of
racial and social justice, he is “committed
to bringing all TSA employees
together through diversity and inclusion
at all levels.” He also spoke about
the new TSA Inclusion Action Committee
assembled from leaders across
the agency who are committed to directly
engaging with employees to create
a fully diverse and inclusive workplace
at TSA.
“Respect is a core value of TSA that
reminds us to foster a culture where
differences are positively embraced,
even those viewpoints, ideas and perspectives
different from our own. This
also applies to treating the public we
serve with dignity and respect,” he
said.
Pekoske also spent time touring
operations at the airport security
checkpoints with Tom Carter, TSA’s
Federal Security Director for Newark
Liberty International Airport and
speaking with federal air marshals
from the Newark field office led by
Supervisory Air Marshal in Charge
Jay Koury. While on site, Pekoske
saw some temporary acrylic barriers
at the travel document checking station,
which soon will be replaced with
more robust permanent ones; signs reminding
passengers of the need to socially
distance; officers in protective
gloves, masks and face shields; officers
offering face masks to passengers
who require a pat-down, but have no
mask; and officers allowing up to one
12-ounce container of hand sanitizer
through the checkpoint.
Pekoske also spoke about the agency’s
plan to lessen touchpoints during
the screening process, like IDs and
passengers’ property, and explained
that pursuing more touchless technology
while increasing security effectiveness
is one of his major priorities.
He listed computed tomography, enhanced
advanced imaging technology
and credential authentication technology
as examples of technologies that
will help change the way TSA does
business.
Kaija wins 2020 TSA’s Cutest Canine
Contest on National Dog Day
Kajla is a five-year-old Vizsla who
works with her handler at Daniel K. Inouye
International Airport (HNL) in
Honolulu walks on Waikiki beach and
paying her respects at Pearl Harbor National
Memorial. Kaija is one of TSA ‘s
currently more than 1,000 explosives
detection canine teams deployed nationwide.
They are tasked with screening
passengers, cargo, mass-transit and
maritime systems, and they support
other security missions.
TSA gives back Food drive in NJ
TSA manager spearheaded food
drive for local NJ residents financially
impacted by pandemic
The pandemic has resulted in
lost jobs, reduced work hours and
lost wages for millions of Americans.
When Lead Transportation
Security Manager Bruce Moore
learned how this was impacting his
hometown of North Plainfield, N.J.,
he decided to do something about it.
“I did not immediately realize
how big of an impact the coronavirus
was having on families when
the pandemic started and how some
did not enough money for food for
their families,” said Moore, who
works at Newark Liberty International
Airport. When he did learn
of the need, he stepped up.
Moore distributed several donation
boxes with the help from officers from
Terminal A in key locations throughout
the airport for TSA employees to
donate food items to the cause. He also
arranged a motorcycle ride to raise
awareness and encourage donations of
non-perishable food items.
A Lead Transportation Security
Officer brings a large box of food to
the MEND van for pick-up from the
TSA office.
Five huge boxes of food items
were donated and Moore arranged
for them to be picked up for distribution
by the local hunger relief
network, MEND (Meeting Essential
Needs with Dignity), a non-profit interfaith
network of 20-member food
pantries located throughout Essex
County, New Jersey.
“The support for the food drive
was strong,” he said. “Last year during
the government shutdown, the local
community supported TSA and
we now had this opportunity to show
we could provide support as well
when the community needed it.”
“I am so impressed by Bruce and
his team for doing this,” said Tom
Carter, TSA Federal Security Director
for New Jersey. “With all the
concerns that exist right now impacting
our team, they still had the
compassionate sense to look outwards,
get beyond their own concerns
and help others in need.”
9/11’s Aviation Heroes Inspire
“Resiliency” Essay Competition
Next fall it will be twenty years
since they came into work at their
airports expecting a normal day
and found themselves in the middle
of a national attack, one in which
their industry was used at the
means.
It was their response, the extraordinary
way ordinary aviation
workers–both airport and airline
employees–rose up to the challenges
that day and to the loss and
pain of the aftermath of 9/11 that
made them heroes.
“Reclaiming the Sky: 9/11 and
the Untold Story of the Men and
Women Who Kept America Flying,”
by Tom Murphy, tells their stories.
The book will serve as a platform
for a “resiliency” essay competition
to give today’s aviation workers
– as well as students – a chance
to share how they can apply the lessons
of courage from 9/11’s aviation
heroes to meet today’s challenges of
Covid 19 and help get America flying
again.
Reclaiming the Sky stories include
profiles of Sue Baer and her
Port Authority team at Newark Int’l
where United Flight 93 departed as
they worked to protect 50,000 travelers
that day, a mother who put her
daughter on United Flight 175 yet
returned to the airport that evening
to comfort other mothers who lost
children and stories of the American
Airlines flight attendants, colleagues
of the crew on Flight 77 that
crashed into the Pentagon, who created
charity projects to honor their
friends.
“The Covid 19 crisis has had a
crushing impact on the aviation industry
and on workers,” said Murphy.
“The essay contest will give
this generation of airport and airline
employees and students a chance to
learn from the courage of the 9/11
generation and apply those lessons
to help them rise up to meet today’s
virus challenges and get our aviation
industry moving forward again.”
The essay competition will start
January 1, 2021 -summer of 2021
before culminating with the 20th
anniversary of 9/11 in September,
2021. The project will be conducted
by the Human Resiliency Institute
at Fordham University which offers
the Edge4Vets program that teaches
veterans how to tap their resiliency
strengths to get jobs and make successful
transitions to civilian life.
TSA Administrator David Pekoske with officers
at EWR.
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