BOSTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Some 140 National Guard volunteers began training Tuesday to help increase security and restore confidence at Boston's Logan International Airport, the takeoff point for two passenger jets hijacked and crashed into New York's World Trade Center three weeks ago.
The airport's chief of security, meanwhile, faced probable ouster in the wake of recent embarrassing security breaches at airline checkpoints.
The National Guard troops, all trained as military police, arrived Tuesday morning at the National Guard headquarters in Milford, Mass., for processing. Over the next two days they will receive special training by the Federal Aviation Administration and state police on "the basics of checkpoint security," according to Col. Oliver Mason.
He said their mission is part of the nation's "homeland defense" effort.
Capt. Margaret Oglesby, a 20-year National Guard veteran, said she has been training for a long time.
"You train for war but pray for peace, but unfortunately we have to do our job now, and I'm excited about executing this mission," she said.
On Friday, most of the troops are to be assigned to Logan, with others going to six other airports in Massachusetts. They will provide relief for state police officers who have been working long hours of overtime since the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said.
Airport spokesman Jose Juves said officials at the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport, also decided to increase the number of state troopers assigned at airline-run checkpoints after reports Monday that at least three passengers were able to walk through a US Airways checkpoint without encountering any security personnel or going through a metal detector.
In addition, law enforcement personnel last week reported they were able to walk through two security checkpoints with a knife and bullets without being detected.
"We have augmented those (checkpoints) with state police," Juves said, adding the incident was yet more evidence that airport security should be taken over by trained federal agents.
Acting Gov. Jane Swift, R-Mass., lashed out at the lapses in security, which supposedly had been beefed up following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
"I believe Logan is safe, although I think we need to continue to address unacceptable security breaches there," she said Monday.
Swift also was to go on television Tuesday evening to outline steps she is taking in the aftermath of the terror attacks, including waiver of tuition and fees at state colleges for members of families of state residents who died in the crashes. She was also expected to announce the immediate hiring of some 150 new state police troopers.
Swift reportedly was to oust airport security chief Joseph Lawless as early as Tuesday, despite his insistence that the airlines and the FAA were to blame for the security lapses.
Lawless, a former state trooper who served as chauffeur for then Republican Gov. William Weld until taking the Massport security post in 1993 has said the 10 terrorists who boarded two passenger jets at Logan on Sept. 11 did not violate any security procedures in place at the time.
His expected ouster was designed to restore confidence at the airport, according to media reports Tuesday.
