(TWIC) Transportation Worker Identification Card

That is exactly the difference. Many are required to have the STCW course completion certificate, but that is not a USCG STCW certificate which requires a TWIC. If they ever get that through though I'm buying more stock in Lockeed Martin.

Maybe they should just tatoo a number on our arm. Wouldn't that be easier? Oh yeah, that's been tried.

The TWIC card is nothing more then an additional tax. I have been in and out of Port Everglades and the Port of Palm Beach. Neither Port even has a means to read the cards, nobody even asks to look at the cards, and IMO it's just another way to tax people. When I renewed my USCG license, the Coast Guard never even asked if I had a TWIC card or to see it or anything.

I used to have it bookmarked but of course now I can't find it. But it listed all those who needed a TWIC. And one of the groups listed was those with an STCW cert.. It did not state an STCW cert. in conjunction with any other license or document.

So it read that if you held just an STCW cert. you needed a TWIC.

If I find it again, I'll post it.

Well, when I sent in my paper work to get the USCG STWC certificate after taking the course there was not a mention of whether I held any other merchant mariner's doc. as I recall. I just send in the information showing I had completed the course and they, the USCG, sent me the cert..

Also stews, chefs and the like seem to be able to take the course, send the paperwork off to the USCG and get their STCW certificate.

If you have a USCG issued STCW Certificate you need it. If you have a SCTW course completion certificate and don't hold a US license or Z-card no. Someday tell a Russian merchant seaman that he has to carry a card that the US Givernment can track and see his response.

I showed mine at renewal without being asked and I show it at airports because, for $135 I'm getting some use out of the thing. Yes it is "just another way to tax people".

So what did you show to get in and out of Prot Everglades then?
(I assume you mean by road..I get turned back every time without some kind of "Port ID" different from TWIC.. )

Hmm, never tried that: Does the airport TSA folks even know what it is..?

I heard the TWIC will be required for aircrew some time in the future, but so far, not required for any airport workers or crews.

There is a look of genuine bewilderment on their faces, but since it's TSA they don't question it. (makes me feel real secure in the screeners, but then again....).

Amazing! It's such a joke. An expensive joke on us.

That sounds like an ad for the school. You might have missed:
#26

and no, I don't expect the TWIC situation to change until enough people complain about it.

Yup, been there, done that, Class of June 2000.

Hmm, not sure it will change at all regardless how many folks complain.

A direct result of 9/11 and even with Dick Cheney gone I am betting my balls TWIC is here for good...

.
Does anybody remember the uproar when Bush floated the idea of a national ID card? It was dropped immediately. Then they slid it in the back door calling it TWIC. One thing I do know is that it will be with us like a tatoo on our arm if we DON'T complain.

It makes 1984 look pretty benign doesn't it?

Tattoos are a bit too close to what these people don't want to be called even if that is what they are becoming. My guess is that for the "protection and security" of children, babies will be implanted with RFID wires at birth. This will be for everyone's protection of course.

Ain't that the truth. It's always passed off as "for our protection".

To bad historicaly we always seem to end up needing protection from our protectors.

And yet we still just go along like sheep and say "nothing can be done" without even trying.

Okay, I am listening, how are you going to get read of the TWIC cards?

***** about it on Yacht Forums?
Complain to TSA?
Write your Congressman?
Start a grassroot campaign?
Refuse to carry the TWIC?

Scratching my head here, but always willing to listen and to take the extra step to be free from the "Man".

Next step would be to get read of Passports, drivers licenses, SS#s, etc.
Watch out..

yes
yes
yes
yes
not yet
Passports, driver's licenses, and SS#'s are needed. Another tax and another layer of bureaucracy are not. Nor is giving the government another way to track your movements.

Hi,

As a Non US Citizen or resident I find the whole previous posts a bit mental.

I hold a STCW95 Compliant UK Merchant Navy Chief Engineers Cert, Last issued in March 2007, I have never been asked for anything to do with TWIC, I currently do not serve aboard as Chief but do spend time on vessels in US Ports amongst others. I have never been asked for more then my CoC, Discharge Book and or Passport when coming and going from the vessel.

You wait and see.

Yawn...Who cares if they track yer movements...?
Unless ya are feeling guilty from transporting drugs or visiting gay-bars you should not fear a thing..?

Seriously, I have no idea where this paranoia of being tracked comes from or why, but if Uncle Sam and his FBI Cousin wants to track my movements, I would find it rather amusing and not the least bit treatening.

(Heck, they do it anyway: My name is all over the system, so is the name of my boat: Crossing the Gulfstream I usually have some low-level helicopter or turbine fixed-wing come in low from behind to read the name and hailing port of the stern. I wave instead of giving finger...Who cares.?)

In additon to TWIC I am part of thr "Global Entry" system and the "Local Boaters Program" and other Government programs such as FAA pilot and USCG Merchant Mariner licensing and FCC Radio tickets, air and marine, etc.
Also "secret" clearences from flying Mil stuff during Gulf War # 1..All good, nothing negative..Don't see how they can screw with an honest guy..?


"Just Because You Are Not Paranoid Does Not Mean Somebody Is Not Out To Get You"

It's only for US Mariners.

"In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up."
It will remain "amusing" until it's your group that is called and your affiliations can be determined through a national ID card. Carrying one was mandatory in Germany before WWII.