The 9-11 World Trade Center Tragedy compelled Shannon Garcia-Hamilton to leave a management position with United Airlines to join the Transportation Security Administration in September 2002. The tragedy was a life-altering experience that enabled her to get into a job
The 9-11 World Trade Center Tragedy compelled Shannon Garcia-Hamilton to leave a management position with United Airlines to join the Transportation Security Administration in September 2002.
The tragedy was a life-altering experience that enabled her to get into a job to better “serve my country,” Garcia-Hamilton said during an interview with The Garden Island Wednesday. “Why I came to TSA?” she asked. “It has got to be 9-11.”
On May 11, TSA officials announced Garcia-Hamilton was named as Federal Security Director at the Lihu‘e Airport.
Over the last month, she has studied ways to enhance airport security, met with state and county leaders, including Mayor Bryan Baptiste, and met “one-on-one” with her 79 airport screens and 10 administrative staff persons to get to know her staffers better.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Garcia-Hamilton was responsible for an operation center for United Airlines at the Los Angeles International Airport that managed 210 United flights daily.
“I was responsible for emergency preparation, and I got the call that two planes crashed, and one was a United (Airlines) and the other, a United (flight), was unaccounted for,” she recalled.
At a United crisis center at the airport, she worked in a chillingly, somber setting with United department heads who tried to locate the planes. The United managers were in constant contact with United Airlines headquarters in Chicago, Garcia-Hamilton said.
“I was a really surreal thing. It was like something out of a movie scene,” she said.
The United officials were trying to track United Flight 93, which flew out of Newark, New Jersey bound for San Francisco.
The plane was taken over by terrorists, who aimed the plane at Washington, D.C. before the aircraft crashed or was shot down by U.S. military planes in Pennsylvania.
The military pilots had authority to shoot down the plane that had become a threat to the nation’s Capitol.
On the same day, United Airlines Flight 175 flew out of Boston bound for Los Angels but was taken over by terrorists. The plane became one of two planes that slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City, and broke apart.
Garcia-Hamilton worked for United Airlines in Los Angeles from 1993-2002, first serving as a cargo supervisor and rising to the position of operations manager.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she was United’s emergency response coordinator at the LAX Crisis Center, and was credited with providing compassionate service to families of the victims of United Flight 175. Her involvement lasted 10 to 14 days.
Garcia-Hamilton said the terrorist attacked prompted her to join the TSA, joining the agency n September 2002.
In her new job on Kaua‘i, Garcia-Hamilton said she will focus her attention on screening functions and regulatory matters related to inspection of security systems at the Lihu‘e Airport and of airlines. She also wants to build partnerships with the community.
Garcia-Hamilton said she also will fine-tune her office’s operation’s, and has either continued or initiated TSA programs to vigorously promote open communications with her staff to promote productivity and harmony.
She also has initiated a “screening advisory council,” a team of volunteers that act as a “sounding board” for suggestions and ideas.
Garcia-Hamilton has served on TSA’s National Customer Support Manager Advisory Council, and as a deputy assistant federal security director for TSA, overseeing 2,700 employees.
“Shannon Garcia-Hamilton has the leadership skills to develop similar strong partnerships in Lihu‘e,” Rear Adm. David M. Stone, TSA’s Acting Administrator, said in a news release in May when Garcia-Hamilton was named to her new job. “The ultimate beneficiaries will be the airport’s passengers.”
Garcia-Hamilton said Stone was an excellent mentor. She has a bachelor of science degree in Information Systems from the University of Phoenix, Los Angeles.
In her new job, Garcia-Hamilton replaces Robert J.F. Peru, Assistant Federal Security Director of Operations for the TSA at the Lihu‘e Airport.
Jack Kelly was originally named to succeed Peru, but was reassigned to a similar position at Sea Tac Airport in Seattle. Garcia-Hamilton was then named to the Kaua‘i post.
Garcia-Hamilton is married to Russell Hamilton, a contractor, has four children and lives in Lihu‘e.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 x225 and lchang@pulitzer.net
