On Jan. 11, 2002, an 86-year-old World War II veteran on his way to speak at the National Rifle Association (NRA0 and the United States Military Academy (USMA) was detained at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, due to the metallic object he wore around his throat. The veteran was also wearing a pacemaker, but the matter was resolved by mailing the object to his home in Arizona — at his own expense.
What made this an embarrassing incident was expressed afterward by the owner, Joe Foss: “I wasn’t upset for me….I was upset for the Medal of Honor, that they didn’t know what it even was.” Make no mistake, though, if anyone at that airport knew who they’d detained, it would have been all the more embarrassing.
Joseph Jacob Foss was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on April 7, 1915. When his father, Frank Ole Foss, was killed in an electric storm in March 1933, he and brother Clint helped his mother, Mary Esther Lacey in keeping up the family. In 1940 he graduated from the University of South Dakota with a degree in Business Administration, by which time he’d concurrently amassed 100 flying hours…