We are back from our trip to Wilmington Delaware, and are working on our story on the Department of Homeland Security’s “TWIC” cards for Brit Hume’s show tonight (Special Report 6p eastern). It’s been a really interesting day watching port workers, truckers and longshormen get fingerprinted and photographed, interviewed and scanned for these new cards. The Port of Wilmington is one of the nation’s busiest, yet smallest ports in the nation, and is the first port to get the security upgrade under the new federally mandated system.

Here’s some background: Congress ordered the administration to develop the card as part of port security legislation passed in 2002. There have been a lot of delays, but the “TWIC” system is finally ready to go. All workers go through a security threat assessment that involves checking their names against a terrorist watchlist, taking a look at any serious felony offenses, as well as immigration checks. If they don’t pass, they don’t get a card. I had a chance to talk to Delaware Congressman Mike Castle who came to watch the start of the program. He was very pleased that the new TWIC program is getting underway in his state.

Now onto the quirky things from today. These first two pictures I snapped from the Port’s docking area. In the first one, you can see the “Dole Chile” ship.

She is the largest refrigerated containerized ship in the world according to Port officials… and carries the largest amount of bannanas in the shipping world. The Dole Chile can carry 1,000 refrigerated containers at a time. That’s a lot of bannanas.

As we watched some of the workers get processed through, we learned some interesting things from each of them. Robert Senseny has been working at the port for 64 years (can you imagine being in your job for that long?) The TSA worker was having a hard time getting his fingerprints to “take” on the machine, so he had him stand up and press really hard. Senseny joked that it was because he has logged a lot of years on his body, and that his fingerprints had worn off his hands.

Then we moved over to another booth, where we interviewed Ted Beery

Notice anything unusual? His thumb is currently under repair after he injured it, and nearly ripped it off during a home fencing project that went horribly wrong (ouch!) He told us that the doctors had to take his hand and attach it to his stomach so that his thumb would grow new skin onto his hand. I couldn’t help but ask, if he will be able to get his id card, if they can’t scan his thumb print? He said he thought they’d be able to work around it…

The workers all seemed to be in good spirits, and think that the new “TWIC” program is a great idea – the more safety precautions, the better. My favorite part about going out on assignment is meeting different characters along the way, like Thomas White. I zeroed in on him right away because of his Sandford and Son t-shirt. Check him out!