Oh, those snowbirds...

I thought for a moment that this article was talking about 431 Squadron, but apparently not:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday the U.S. has decided to temporarily forgo new passport rules for Canadians heading home by air from winter residences in Florida and other sun belt states.

"For Canadians who are snowbirds who are returning to Canada, we will allow them to depart the United States without having a passport -- for some significant period of time -- to avoid the problem of people who may have come last year before the requirement," he said following meetings here with Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day.

"We don't want to strand them here, although I'm sure they would love to stay an extra month in the warm weather."

Starting Jan. 23, all Canadians and Americans entering the U.S. by air will need a passport.

All Canadians and Americans? I wonder whether Sheldon Alberts actually did all his homework on that.

You see, I have personal experience flying into a foreign country with no passport. It was fifteen years ago, mind you, on a C-130 with my military ID in my flight suit pocket, and the country was Germany instead of the U.S.

But I suspect that American service members won't be required to show a valid passport when they disembark from their transport aircraft returning from Iraq. I further suspect that Canadian reservists doing training at U.S. bases won't be turned back at the border without a passport either. Military personnel travelling for duty reasons tend to work under a different set of rules than the general population.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the article's blanket statement seems to have missed an entire constituency.