Rachel McGlynn
VINELAND, N.J. – Rachel McGlynn, the Transportation Security Administration’s Deputy Director of the Training Operations Division , will be the keynote speaker this evening at the City of Vineland, New Jersey’s annual Patriots Day event that commemorates the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on our country. The event will be broadcast live locally at 6 p.m. on Comcast channel 9 and via YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vFMUWLKU-Y.
In her remarks, McGlynn, a native of Vineland, will focus on how the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the events following shaped her life’s work and mission.
McGlynn began her career as an explosives detection canine handler in Virginia and in 2000 shifted to work at the Federal Aviation Administration’s Technical Center in Atlantic City, where she tested equipment designed to detect explosives hidden inside checked baggage. She also hid guns in baggage to create X-ray images to be used for training purposes and learned how to conceal improvised explosive devices in everyday items.
When the terrorists struck on 9/11, McGlynn says that “my job was no longer a job, it was, and continues to be my passion. I was not going to let that happen again, as we say in TSA, ‘Not on our watch.’ But remember, TSA didn’t exist back then.” Prior to 9/11, contract screeners provided airport security.
When TSA was established, McGlynn helped train the first cadre of Federal airport officers. She provided training and progressed to developing and refining security policy. She served as the Aviation Security Director for the National Security Council staff and found it to be “the most humbling opportunity to serve the American people.”
Later in her TSA career, McGlynn was appointed to be the TSA representative for 10 countries in South and Southeast Asia and relocated to Singapore for five years.
Now as TSA’s Deputy Director of Training Operations, McGlynn continues to work tirelessly to prevent another 9/11-type of tragedy from happening again.