I went to a certain city served by Northwest recently. The name of the city is withheld to protect the guilty. 1. When my father went through the security line, the TSA guard asked for a "government issued ID card." Well, my father meant to pull out his driver's license, but pulled out his Navy ID by mistake. It has his name, photo, date of birth, etc. The TSA guard said that was not a government ID card. And yes, it is our Navy. :-). 2. The trips to and from the hub city to this city were on RJ 100's. This is a plane that has the look of a military cargo plane with its high sloping wings, but is a bit smaller. Nice wide seats -- better than the other commuter, excuse me, regional jets. The curious thing was the announcement during the safety briefing -- the first class passengers had life jackets under their seats; in coach, we would have to use our seat bottom cushions "in the unexpected event of a water landing" as most airlines put it. john -- John F. Kurtzke, C.S.C. Department of Mathematics 278 Buckley Center University of Portland Portland, OR 97203 503-943-7377 kurtzke@xxxxxx