I thought I would start a thread about problems with security in US ports failing to recognize the TWIC card.<br><br>I have been to Port of Miami and Port Everglades and security will not recognize the TWIC as a form of identification. I assumed after the redundant fingerprinting and background check that I already had to obtain my MMD, and paying $140.00 to prove I am who I really am. I would have ultimate clearance to go anywhere in any port with NO HASSLES! <br><br>The opposite has happened in almost every port I have been to since being issued this card. instead of identifying myself with my TWIC, I get asked for my MMD, even my drivers license, and getting scutinized for at least 5 minutes by port security as they pass my TWIC around to the other officers like they have never seen one before! It wasnt good enough for them. I told them I just paid $140 for it, I thought it was good for something! WTF!?<br><br>Despite the fact that every mariner that holds a MMD is required to go through a background check and be fingerprinted, this isnt enough for the Department of Homeland Security.<br>Despite the fact the USCG is trying to simplify the all the documents and certificates etc. they will not stand behind the MMD as a form of identification.<br>Ultimately they want to phase out the MMD (Merchant Mariners Document) with a MMC (Merchant Mariners Credential) So you will no longer have a card to carry in your wallet showing you are a U.S. Merchant Marine. The MMC will be a fancy watermarked piece of paper, not a card.<br>Eventually they want to make it so the only documents you need to bring with you when joining a ship is an MMC (Merchant Marine Credential) that shows your endorsements etc. to show what your approved skills are, and rating, and your TWIC to show that you are really you.<br>Im just guessing here, but I think the MMC will not have a photo on it. The TWIC will be used to identify you, and thats it.<br><br>Has anyone else found the TWIC just as worthless? How many stupid looks have you got since you had to show this card every time you enter a US port? Any particular ports where you have been hassled or they failed to recognize the TWIC and opted for your MMD as ID, as has been done for decades?<br><br>Post your gripes here.
I was one of the early ones to get a TWIC and havenât been asked for it yet. Ports Iâve entered have been all over the USA and not once have I been asked to produce it. Normally I donât tell anyone I have it as they may get confused, however, just for fun Iâve asked some of the security people when they were going to start requiring it and they had no idea what I was talking about.<br> This is another âfeel goodâ Homeland Security boondoggle which primarily benefits the contractor, Lockheed Martin, at the expense of the US transportation worker. The fact that it is now required for you to renew your license is easy to understand once you realize that Admiral James Loy was in charge of the USCG when all this was mandated; he has since retired and now sits on the Lockheed-Martin board of directors.
The only time I have used my TWIC card is to âbaffleâ the TSA in the airport. It is fun to watch the look on their face when you hand them that. But, I have never been asked for another ID to date. Nothing like putting the cart before the horse on this âprojectâ.
jdcavo, next time âback-upâ the TWIC with your Z-card then taken a picture of the look on his face for this forum!
Security at REC Boston wonât accept an MMD to get in the building, go figure.<br><br>At an oil dock down in West Palm Beach our crew was asked for our TWICâs, we all had them. But security didnât examine them, just wanted to know if we HAD them. Then they wanted our MMDâs to check against their access list. One guy had left his on the boat and they accepted his drivers license.<br><br>Itâs a crazy world.
No the real fun starts when they start putting the computers on the
boats and every person is supposed to put there card in it to be read
as they board. As I understand it anybody who has to be on the dock is
supposed to have one, even the oil field hands if there to ride a boat.
Going to be a lot of fun for us crewboat guys when these guys start
showing up and we cant let them ride because of they donât have their
TWIC. Iâm interested to see how many of these yard hands will be with
out a job because they dont qualify for a TWIC because of the bad
desicions in there background? <br><br>As for the original question,
there not good for a dam thing except to take up space in my wallet. It
was a bad idea passed in the mass hysteria of post 9/11. Itâs possible
a good idea, just f`ed up like everything else Washington gets its
hands on, and its not made any better when thereâs a good dose of greed
thrown in for good measure. <br><br>I mean really when the guards who
are supposed to know what these things are look at you like your an
alien being when you present them with one, how safe does that make you
feel. I mean hell I should be able to present my TWIC at the airport
and be let through with none of that remove the shoes, empty the
pocket, take the computer out of the bag crap. The TWIC was sold as
"Hey this person has a TWIC, they are not a terroroist." <br><br>I
think its a good idea to know hows working at the docks and making sure
they are who they say they are, but asking the mariners to go through
this when most of us here have already gone through even more stringent
back ground checks to get our MMDâs and license should be down right
criminal. And as I understand it most truck drivers, especially those
that are licensed to carry hazardous materials go through similar
checks with the DMV before being issued there license. <br><br>So I guess when Iâm trying to say is that they should have taken another year and thought this one through.
Port of Ft. Lauderdale 10-07-08<br><br>Presented my TWIC at the outer gate, then asked for my MMD, then asked for my drivers license number and drivers license, While this info was entered into a computer data base by a member of the Broward County Sherrifâs Dept. who can only type with one-finger-hunt-and-peck-style, Then a temporary adhesive badge was printed to put on my shirt to get through the NEXT gate. <br><br>Ok, this had to be done 4 times because I was returning to the ship with 3 other shipmates. This whole ordeal took about 10-15 minutes to enter the facility on foot.<br><br>Meanwhile there was another gate on another street that was letting all kinds of taxis and private cars drive right in!<br><br>Anyhow, this is all just to get to a SECOND gate where I handed them everything. My TWIC, MMD, My Drivers License, and the adhesive badge they printed up for me. <br><br>I even asked if they accepted Credit Cards!<br><br>Anyhow, after that we had our ship security, but they all know me, so that was no problem.<br><br>All I wanted was to go out for a few hours, get a burger, a beer, and watch some Monday Night FootballâŚ<br><br>
So now it has been proven to be exactly what we always thought it was ⌠a money grubbing waste of time and resources that does absolutely nothing to enhance âsecurityâ of any kind other than financial security for a handful of parasites.
Props for reviving as elderly a thread I think Iâve seen in quite a while. The TWIC is hands down the most worthless ID we have to deal with.
When it first came out that you had to have a great background check. Then they dumb it down and allowed so many convictions. Now the FBI passed or allowed known people on a terrorist watch list.
They need to scrap the TWIC or go back to the original plan with a strick requirements to hold one.
Another example of the Uber expensive and mostly useless overwhelming security theater foisted upon the American public by the security-industrial complex and the Congessmen they have bought to make it profitable.
Itâs not just Twic. There is also TSA-Pre, Goes, Nexus, Sentries, Fast, and various other government issued security cards. Soon Iâll need to hire an illegally alien just to lug all my cards around.
God forbid American sailors want to go ashore in an American port without having their TWIC. We should abolish the TSA too while weâre dreaming.
The waiting-room was crowded with people, with plain people like me. Some of them had already been sitting there four days. Others had been there scores of times. First a certain paper had been missing, then a certain certificate was not complete, then some record was not sufficient, and blanks had been filled in fifty times, and fifty times torn up and thrown into the waste-basket and done over again. The whole thing was no longer an affair of human beings; it had become an affair of papers, blanks, affidavits, certificates, photographs, stamps, seals, files, height-measuring, and quarreling about the correct color of the eyes and the hair. The human being himself was out and forgotten. A piece of merchandise would not have been treated so.
Not only Americans are suffering from this. It has been âexportedâ to the rest of the world as well. Some of the more silly rules, which do nothing for actual security, originated in the US and are followed with gusto by authorities and security personnel worldwide.
In a pinch, it makes a handy window scraper on a frosty morningâŚ
The only TWIC scanners Iâve seen were at BP Houma and a Bristow Heliport.
At one point, I renewed mine a year early and ended up with two TWIC cards. One for my wallet and one for the back of the MMC.
Does a TWIC card get you through Blount Island security these days?
âWhat is it good for?â
Absolutely nothinâ !
Only time in my career I was ever asked to show mine was by a little MUG at the security shack on the Fort Schuyler pier.
MY MAN! I was scrolling through HOPING someone would jump
You are lucky. I have had to produce it the last time I entered terminals in Fourchon, Jacksonville, San Juan, Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma, Everett, Seward, ValdezâŚCome to think of it, like it or not I have had to have it on me or risk not getting in.
And Houston.