Recently I was flying to ORD and was the first to board. There was a guy with a crew cut in the seat next to mine, so I asked him after fastening my seat belt, "Are you the air marshal?" He said no, and then I said I always try to guess who the air marshals are on planes as a way to kill time. Right after I said that he takes out this beeper and starts pecking away until we push back. So I forget about the whole thing until we land and there is a special reception for me at the gate. "Why do you want to know who the air marshal is?" And I get an extra thorough search, which by now I am used to. After my previous encounter I take out my print out of the web page that Venk referred me to and start saying I want a same sex search in a private area, I know my rights....

So my questions are:

1) Aren't police and other law enforcement supposed to identify themselves when asked?

2) If the the government is so paranoid about customers knowing who the air marshals are, then why don't they just board with everyone else?

3) Don't I have a right not to sit next to someone with a firearm on an aircraft? I mean which is more likely, to be injured while opening an emergency exit or to be injured by a loaded weapon.