This sums up our recent experience at the Louisville Airport. We drove up to celebrate our son's graduation from ROTC Leadership Training Course. After a couple days with him we took him to the airport so he could fly back to his college. Every single cadet was tagged for a luggage search. These cadets had thier cadet/army ids with them. In the hour we spent at the check-in area only one non-cadet or soldier was required to have his luggage searched. My son asked why they check the cadets. Because they have one-way tickets. I guess the fact that these were government issued tickets had no value in the decision making process.

The process was aggrivated for us because my son's Gold Bond powder container opened in a side pocket. It happened when he was packing. Fortunately he did what most 19 year olds would do and just threw the container in his luggage (I would have thrown it away). He was able to produce it when they asked to see it. The big delay was waiting for a superior security agent to appear and fill out three lines in a black binder. He asked for ID and had a hard time dealing with my son's cadet id and military dependent id cards. He was asked if he had something better, "like a driver's license."

My son has reconciled himself that he will usually be tagged for a search (those Mediteranian looks). This was an exercise in screening a large number of people least likely to pose a security risk.