It must have depended on where you were in the US. I traveled from Ft Sill to Houston and San Antonio, in uniform, 2 or 3 times a month all of 1971, and from Houston to Germany, round trip, 3 times in 72 and 73 and never had any trouble at all. Well unless you count two Southwest Airlines stewardesses (the hotpants days at Southwest) getting pissed that I could not join them for dinner in San Antonio.</
As you noted, once inland to Atlanta, St Louis and beyond, it was a different story.
College campuses were also a real pain.