Transportation Security Administration

Should I be upset? My trip home had been predictability painful—so painful, that I was practicably numb when I got to Atlanta—my second to last stop. A couple of things happened in Atlanta that has me a bit bothered.

There were 350 of us on our flight from Kuwait and the majority of us had been traveling for 3 days. Under the best circumstances, one doesn't feel very fresh after so much traveling. In our case, add the fact that we spent many hours waiting in the sun, lugging heavy bags and sleeping on whatever piece of ground we could find; well, I'm sure that we smelled pretty ripe. As far as shower facilities, well...a baby wipe shower was the best you could do.

Now picture this: We arrive in Atalanta, breeze thorough customs and sail through immigration. Our next stop was security. While we are in line going through the metal detector, one of the TSA employees ( a very loud and boisterous woman) commented quite loudly how bad we smelled and started walking up and down the line spraying perfume into the air. At the time, I was numb and just wanted to get home, but the more I think about it the more her actions offend me. The way I see it, she could have either spayed her perfume before we got there (every day a planeload of troops come in from the middle east, so our arrival was no surprise) or held her nose and opinion to herself until we past. I'm sorry, but “you stink” was not the welcome I expected and definitely not one that these troops deserved. I can also guarantee that a lot of us have smelled things far, far worse while serving our country in a war zone.

My adventures with TSA got better from there. After security, I found out that my connecting flight doesn't leave for a couple of hours. So I decide to go to the USO for lunch and some buy flowers for my wife (one rose for every month she took such great care of everything back home), The USO and the flower shop are both outside security in the main terminal.

Coming back through security this time, I set off the metal detector (depending on the sensitivity of the machine, this happens from time to time since I have a hardware store where my elbow used to be).
I was then pulled aside. There I am standing in the middle of terminal (no privacy at all) in my combat uniform, boots off, hands out to my side, getting “wanded.” It was a bit embarrassing, to say the least, but I have no problem with added security. The wand kept beeping on my arm, so then they decide to frisk me. So there I was, getting patted down in front of a hundred people in the middle of the Atlanta airport. I felt like a common criminal. Right next to me, another TSA employee dumped out my back pack and proceeded to search everything. “Welcome home hero, SPREAD 'EM!" Quite a few people complained to security on my behalf and a lot of fellow passengers came up to me and apologized to me.

I am all for security and I have no problem being extra careful, but a little discretion goes a long way. Frisking a person behind a privacy screen would have no impact on effective security at all. At the time, I was numb and all I cared about was getting home. In hindsight, if I saw a private or corporal being frisked like that on his way home from Iraq, I would have been outraged.

Adventures aside, I am home with my family. For the next couple of week, that is all that matters