My husband served in the United States Army as a Chaplain's Assistant with the 101st Airborne and proudly served his country during Operation Enduring Freedom.

He still keeps his hair extremely short - "Army style" - and often carries his bag with the Army emblem on the side. Having traveled with him numerous times prior to getting married, I was used to him being "profiled" and the extra time it took to search him. In fact, we took this inevitability into consideration and always planned for an extra thirty minutes in line.

On the way back from our honeymoon we found ourselves in a long security line at the San Francisco Airport. Naturally my husband was "randomly selected" to go through all the extra security measures along with another woman's husband and her two sons, about twelve and fourteen years of age. All four men sported short, military style haircuts.

Unlike all previous experiences, my husband was immediately questioned about his ties to the military. He responded that he had actively served and was now in the "inactive reserve." The TSA Nazi who was interrogating him forcibly removed his black carry-on from his hands and unceremoniously dumped the entire contents ON THE FLOOR. He then proceeded to pick up every mundane object and hold it above his head to the light for close inspection.

When he got to the small porcelain doll I had bought in British Columbia, he demanded to know why it was in my husband's bag. My husband explained that it was extremly expensive and breakable and that we were afraid it would not make it through if checked. Meanwhile, the other woman's family was receiving similar treatment.

After several more minutes, all four men were forced to stand spread-eagle against a wall and were wanded. Both myself and the other woman were becoming very upset, as this whole spectacle was being played out in front of all of the other passengers in the security line. When we questioned the severity of the search, we were lead off by a woman into a separate room farther down the terminal and told not to leave until our families were brought to us. Needless to say, we were both in tears at this point, which didn't seem to concern the TSA officer who escorted us away. She promptly closed the door and left.

An hour-and-a-half after the whole ordeal began, all four men walked through the door to the room we were sequestered in. Apparently after all that time, the TSA could find no good reason to detain anyone. The whole experience left all invloved emotionally and physically exhausted and very disillusioned with all of the so-called measures put in place to protect us.