I was looking through some of my pictures of the airshows my son and I attended this past summer and did a little reminiscing about our most memorable moments. Funny, the 2 most memorable were actually away from the shows!!!
I just had to share the one that was kind of funny;
My son (b_locks) and I were at a show in the US back in July. After a day at the show we had decided we just haven't seen enough aircraft so figured we would take a drive out to an ANG base to see if anything was going on (Fanatics eh?). As we came up to the airport which housed the ANG base I decided to turn in at the first driveway heading in a direction toward the tower. The road branched in a couple of directions and I decided to stay to the left as it seemed to head toward an interesting group of buildings. Shortly we were going by military vehicles parked inside a fenced area which drew our attention. Almost simultaneously my son and I noticed the tails of F16's just past a building to our left then we realized that there were little blue lights on the side of the driveway on which we were driving!!!!! I think we both blurted out something like "Holy Crap" at the same time as we realized we were now on a taxiway!!! Needless to say, I did a quick "U" turn and got out of there. I was totally expecting to be chased at some point by a vehicle with flashing lights or something , but we seemed to go un-noticed.
Any way, we drove around the outside of the airport and finally came upon an entrance to the ANG base portion which had barbed wire fences, barracades, and armed guards!!!!!! We just had to chuckle!!!
It just goes to show you that sometimes, all that security is just for show to make us feel more secure. With that in mind, a good book on post 9/11 security is "Beyond Fear" by Bruce Schnneier. It is a bit dry and sometimes repetitive, but really puts security in perspective!

Have a nice day!
Wingyone