In recent years due to attacks on the United States, our airports have increased security to help try and prevent any further attacks. More questions are asked, detailed searches are performed and random checks are carried out. It is amazing how one event can drastically change a country's major industry's day-to-day operation. The changes that have been set forth seem to be more of a nuisance or waste of resources than a disincentive.

On arriving to the airport there is a _­­large force of police officers who roam the roads, sidewalks and terminals as a show of force. I do believe this is a deterrent but it appears as if they give more tickets to drivers than they do spending their time looking for potential threats. I feel that cameras would be a more efficient way of observing the airport as compared to wasting human resources patrolling an airport when they could be in areas of our communities making them safer.

When receiving a boarding pass, the attendant asks if anyone but you has packed and carried your bags. Yet with one airline, all you have to do is use a kiosk to obtain your boarding pass where no questions are asked. Why is the boarding pass agent forced to ask you questions about where your baggage has been and a kiosk does not require terms and conditions before awarding you with your ticket?

Once your ticket has been received, you are herded through the security checkpoint where you present your ticket with your I.D. to an inspecting agent who checks the validity of the documents. You then place your luggage on a conveyor belt to go through an x-ray scan and you are forced to remove your shoes and coats to pass through a metal detector. I was forced to walk shirtless through a metal detector because my sweatshirt was questionable to the agent. To me this is absurd since I spent six months overseas protecting our country fighting terrorism to then be profiled as a suspect of terrorism and humiliated in front of hundreds of people in an airport terminal.

Finally you arrive at your gate where you roam around for an empty seat next to someone you can withstand until you (hopefully) board your flight on time and at your gate. After all that, it seems the increase in security has not led to the arrest of any more attempted hijackers, except for all of us who have been given tickets by the officers at our airports.