[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 18, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7-S8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              BILL O'NEILL

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I wish today to acknowledge the good 
work of Bill O'Neill, a document checker at the Burlington 
International Airport in Vermont.
  I routinely fly between Burlington and Washington, and it is always a 
pleasure to see Bill at the ID checking stand. He and I have been 
friends for decades.
  I was pleased to see an article about Bill in the December 27, 2005, 
Burlington Free Press. I ask that a copy of the article be printed in 
the Record. I know that once they read it, my colleagues will look 
forward to traveling through the Burlington airport as much as I do.
  The article follows.

            [From the Burlington Free Press, Dec. 27, 2005]

Security With a Smile, Airport Screener Bill O'Neill Helps Take Stress 
                             Out of Flying

                           (By Emily Guziak)

       South Burlington.--Bill O'Neill's job does not require that 
     he fawn over babies.
       Nor does it require that he greet everyone he meets by name 
     with a heartfelt good morning, put their various airline 
     receipts in order, hold cups of coffee, or provide tips on 
     how to switch planes at the next destination.
       O'Neill, a document checker for PrimeFlight Aviation 
     Services at Burlington International Airport, is simply 
     required to check departing passengers' identification, 
     boarding passes and number and size of carry-on items.
       For frequent travelers, the document checker is often the 
     nameless, faceless, overly efficient person hurrying 
     passengers into inevitable security lines. For bleary-eyed, 
     often-harried early morning travelers in Burlington, 
     O'Neill's station at Gate One is an oasis in the rush of 
     processing passengers through ticket check-in and 
     Transportation Security Administration security clearance.
       ``He's brilliant; he's great,'' said business traveler J.P. 
     Tardy, of Charlotte, N.C., queuing up in the security line 
     for United Airline's 7:48 a.m. flight to Chicago on a recent 
     weekday morning. ``He absolutely makes this airport.''
       O'Neill, 72, is the document checker for United Airlines 
     and US Airways passengers, from 4:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 
     Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. His upbeat, helpful manner 
     never wavers, those working around him say.
       ``He's very people-oriented; people like him,'' said Mark 
     Salisbury, supervisor, transportation security officer, for 
     TSA at Burlington International Airport. Salisbury supervises 
     the security checkpoint near

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     O'Neill's station. ``He's worked in the business for a long 
     time, so I'm sure he's seen it all. He's just a very nice 
     guy. And he's very helpful, especially for older folks.''
       ``You feel like you're being greeted, rather than just 
     being moved into the line by a security person,'' said Deedee 
     O'Brien of Shelburne, en route to Los Angeles on the Chicago 
     flight. ``I think he was here when we traveled six months 
     ago. He's such a nice person.''
       O'Neill's performance should be catching the attention of 
     all those marketing gurus out there trying to sell the 
     quintessential New England hometown atmosphere. At 6:30 a.m., 
     as passengers went through O'Neill's station, the mood of 
     some travelers changed from tense to relaxed.
       ``He provides the best service I've ever had,'' said Dan 
     Grant, of Seattle, a weekly business traveler. ``If you fly a 
     lot and go through the larger airports, you can get kind of 
     beaten down. You're lucky if you can get a word out of people 
     in his job.''
       He is in command at his post. ``You can put that ID away; 
     you won't need it anymore today and your boarding pass to 
     Philly is right here,'' O'Neill quietly and calmly told one 
     of the people in the steady stream of departing passengers. 
     ``I thank you, and you have a good day.''
       ``He takes the hassle out of what travel has become,'' said 
     Andy Tomlinson of South Burlington, on her way ``to go home 
     and do the Santa thing'' with family in California. ``He's 
     great.''
       A United Airlines employee for 32 years, O'Neill retired in 
     1998 and returned to work in March for extra income. He is 
     employed by PrimeFlight Aviation of Nashville, Tenn. The 
     company has 4,000 employees in 50 airports in the United 
     States providing a variety of services. In Burlington, United 
     Airlines and US Airways contract with PrimeFlight to provide 
     five document checkers.
       O'Neill also has the task of informing passengers when they 
     have been randomly selected by the airlines for an additional 
     search, and must proceed to the line to their right, rather 
     than left. ``People can resent it, especially if they're in a 
     hurry,'' O'Neill said.
       ``I tell them, I `fly free because I have a golden pass, 
     and every time I fly the computer randomly selects me because 
     it reads my ticket as cash, one-way and automatically makes 
     me a selectee. I tell them their special search is no 
     different than mine and it often makes them feel better.;''
       ``He is just fantastic,'' said Thane Butt, of Shelburne, 
     flying to Chicago with her husband, Peter. Butt jokingly 
     asked the bushy-eyebrowed O'Neill if he was Andy Rooney.
       ``I've been asked that a few times,'' said the unflappable 
     O'Neill.
       ``He makes you feel like you're not just another person,'' 
     said Dr. Alan Segal of South Burlington. ``And he's got one 
     of those faces; he looks like everyone's 
     grandfather.''

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