Subject: [Tweeters] visiting birding locations accessed through military
Date: Jul 27 12:24:11 2016
From: Jim Danzenbaker - jdanzenbaker at gmail.com


Tweeters,

This is an fyi for birders who may be visiting birding locations that are
on or accessed through military bases in the United States.

Several weeks ago, I spent some quality time in southeast Arizona enjoying
such specialties as Slate-throated Redstart, Buff-collared Nightjars,
Five-striped Sparrows, and Rufous-capped Warbler. I ended my five day trip
with a planned visit to Huachuca Canyon which is accessed through Fort
Huachuca Army Installation located next to Sierra Vista, AZ. As is
typically the case when entering a military base as a visitor, sign in and
obtaining a visitor pass is required. Everything went smoothly until the
officials asked me what state I was from. When I said "Washington", I was
asked for TWO forms of photo identification. I had only one. The reason
why two forms were required for Washington State driver's license holders
is because the state of Washington does not have an enhanced driver's
license (whatever that is). They asked me for a car registration since
that would be a valid photo identification substitute. I had a rental car
so that didn't work. I eventually found my USAA credit card and, since I
was requesting a Visitor Pass for only 6 hours, I ws eventually approved
for the one time visit.

My thought for the Tweeters community is that if you are planning on
visiting a birding location which is accessed through a military base and
you have a Washington State driver's license, be prepared to be asked for a
second form of photo identification. According to the officer who I spoke
with, this rule may not be applied consistently across all military bases
but it certainly seems to be enforced at Fort Huachuca. He mentioned that
they were able to come up with an alternate plan for visitors with an
Arizona driver's license (must be another state which doesn't have an
enhanced license) since they get so many visitors with Arizona driver's
licenses.

I don't know if this rule applies to visitors entering Lewis-McCord or if
they've come up with an Arizona type plan which waives the two photo
identification requirement for in-state driver's license holders.

I hope this helps any of you who may be planning out of state birding
locations accessed through military locations.

Keep your eyes and ears skyward.

Jim
--
Jim Danzenbaker
Battle Ground, WA
360-702-9395
jdanzenbaker at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20160727/b8e763cb/attachment.htm