My level of mistrust for the Government has increased ten fold after reading this article and the postings. Who do I blame? President Bush,the Congress,the Republicans, the Democrats, or all of them? A top to bottom overhaul is needed but who should be in charge? Even more alarming is whether these abuses are prevalent throughout Government? My gut reaction is yes. Let us all pray for a reform movement that will actually work. Otherwise many of us should consider leaving the USA for a better life.

Once again, it is obvious that armed officers should not be sitting on a plane waiting to get ambushed, they should be on the ground investigating and preventing terrorists and bombs from getting ONTO the planes.

Lock-mount a buckshot shotgun in the cockpit and install the United Airlines steel barriers. Install video surveillance systems that pilots can monitor anything outside the cockpit.

Get guns off the plane.

When you have a service like the Federal Air Marshal Service that only hires retires you start to question this. I mean were 4 years into this agency and we still have this retires contracts renewed. Plus you have Secret Service Agents who have no experience in this area of work but they are in charge. We should be promoting from within. It would stop a lot of mismanagement and abuse of authority. Right now you have SAC’s (Special Agents in Charge) who lead through threats, intimidation, and corrupt work practices all against federal laws and EEO violations. But as my SAC once said it doesn’t matter because I know DHS OIG guys who will give me a heads up. Also ours once said the only way you will get promoted is if I say you can; meaning you have to be a yes person, 2) he once said if someone called in sick I would get with person and straighten them out. Here he wants to create a hostile work environment. You see his bonus is tied into how many flights we do a year, as it’s alleged. If people start calling in sick then his bonus is gone. All anyone has to do if they really cared is look at TSA’s year report about the job satisfaction and your answers are answered. But who cares things have been like this for to long and even going to the media got these guys nowhere. Well until 3/4 th’s or more of senior management plus SAC’s are replaced by current FAM’s no real progress will be made. All this guys are tainted ASAC’s on UP.

I don't know who this courageous FAM is, but he/she is providing a noble service and should be seen and treated as a patriot. The only antidote for corruption and mismanagement is a bright light. We must protect those public servants who shine the bright light and expose corrupt public officials.

I am a former Federal Air Marshal and I think it's awesome you guys are helping to expose the BS and unsafe practices that have gone on for years!

I can assuredly say, every post written about this subject on here accurately depicts how the FAMS is run. I challenge any agency, law firm etc.. to conduct further investigations into the matter. Mr. Ross you are to be lauded for standing up for fams on this issue. The collective results will serve as a stark public eye opener of how much turmoil is at the FAMS/TSA. It will show that the dysfunction of the Federal Air Marshal Service is worse than FEMA due to poor management (NOT the so oft used phrase senior managers like to call the people bringing this to light “malcontents” that are always blamed for the problems of the FAMS). Knowing full well that there will always be personnel problems in all organizations, I can unequivocally say that I have never been a part of an organization that is so rooted with the most arrogantly pervasive form of favoritism, nepotism and cronyism—bar none. The problem with TSA/FAMS is that there is little to no IG recourse or support for redress because the senior management staffs at the IGs are former SS agents as well and have an oath of allegiance to each other and are all friends in this corrupt esoteric bubble. It is a hostile work environment and although nothing substantial can be done about these troublesome issues at present, I am hopeful that in 2006 and 2008, the new Congress and Presidency will keep this polarizing and divisive problem in the back of their minds once in office.

On another equally important note, the management structure has erased thirty plus years of playing catch up in the Federal Government regarding the progress of fair and equitable treatment of minorities. The management staff (mostly all ex/retired SS) had this very problem while serving at SS. The management staff likes to showcase a few (token) minority promotions in various positions to refute these allegations. It is unconscionable that this is tolerated this day and age. This discriminatory “play by our own rules” mentality has become the par for the course regarding promotions and lateral assignments of highly qualified minorities. Recently, there were at least six supervisory promotions (all making over 120K) in one particular field office of which five out of those six were white fams (the main issue isn’t that they were white because non-Secret Service fams who are white are discriminated against as well). The problem is that those 5 out of 6 newly selected (GS-14) supervisors only held high school diplomas while there were dozens of minority applicants that possessed Bachelors and Masters Degrees, as well as vast work experience who (forget about not being promoted) weren’t even interviewed for the positions. The question I am constantly asked is that why these newly promoted supervisors who don’t have the basic education to get a GS-5 entry level Special Agent position in any other federal agency can get promoted to a GS-14 over African American and Latino applicants with Bachelors and Masters Degrees and more experience to supervisory positions? This is the most blatant and provable form of the gross discrimination that takes place at the FAMS. This is fact! This is not some made up figure from the malcontents group that is always being used as an excuse and scapegoat to mask these inequities at the FAMS. The dissention rate is upwards of 70-80% as the new 2006 TSA work survey will show.

The reason I don’t believe anything will be done about this gross mismanagement is plain and simple—self-preservation. The management staff will only reshuffle the bad-apples of management and allow them to continue to drive a wedge into the careers of the hard-working men and women of this agency. This has become a systemic problem of major proportion and not the company line and proverbial words used, “these are isolated incidents” that management replies to when queried by the numerous congressional inquiries. The only way this problem goes away is with wholesale change of the management climate at the FAMS/TSA. Until such time, there will always be an SS ”do it the most difficult way you can” mentality to problem solving which is the very thing that fuels the utter disdain the rank and file have toward the managers of this organization. There has not been one policy in the FAMS that fosters a pro-employee or pro-organization approach. Management uses this rift as a reason to keep gainfully employed. Ideas toward positive change take a back seat to how an office can discipline a good worker because they whistle blow or they speak up against the hostile work environment. A great analogy by Senator Grassley best personifies the work environment at the FAMS and that is, “ if my neighbor comes up to me and tells me my house on fire, my first inclination is to thank him and put out the fire, FAMS management would rather dump cold water over the neighbor’s head.” FAMS management has created this Gestapo like work environment and wonder why they are so despised and not respected.

What the management is doing verges on criminal. They create jobs for their friends, have no managerial skills and blatantly waste tax payer dollars. The Charlotte field office, for example has seven supervisors when the operation here could be run with no more than three; and in fact it once was. This Agency's budget is so overblown it is ridiculous. It would be the defination to cut tens' of millions and run far more effectively than we do now. Like the thousand who left before me I'll be taking a new job within the next couple of months. The FAM Service has become an embarrassment I want nothing further to do with.

Somone needs to follow up and continue to follow the Air Marshal Service. The Leaders of our service have no idea what it means to take care of the people working for them. They worry more about the numbers and recoveringa mission then they do about if our cover is blown or if we are about to blow our ear drums out and we are sick from 5 to 6 days of flying. The public and the airlines have no idea what we go through everyday to complete our missions and then the crap we put up with from our leaders in our offices. This job could be one of the best jobs in Federal Law Enforcement, however they are driving us all out with thier poor work ethics and policies. they have no idea what it is to fly everyday.

thank you and please continue to follow us.

Ms. Rhonda Schwartz, it is imperative that you continue to look into the gross mismanagement bordering criminal activity in the Chicago Federal Air Marshal Office. The public would be outrage at a similar incident involving the female FBI agent in Minnesota.

It's about time somebody lets the American public know what is going on. I am a retired federal law enforcement officer (26 years on the job). Congress has to step up to the plate and really protect these brave employees who expose wrongdoing and corruption of management.

As a former Federal Air Marshal I think its great that a flying FAM is courageous enough to committ career suicide! I joined the Air Marshals shortly after 9/11 because I believed in the mission. That idea was quickly choked out of me with the ever increasing mismanagment. It seems to me and many of my former colleagues that our lives were worth nothing to the secret service cronies that were given management jobs based on who they knew and not experience in the field. Management's unspoken rule was shut up and fly!

I have never been a part of an organization that could care less for its employees. They could care less about our concerns with respect to airline and personal security. As long as the numbers looked good who cared that our covers were being blown daily by the same airlines we swore to protect. It was more important to show Lyle Lovett around our top secret facility and let him shoot off a few rounds than take a meeting with the troops actually flying the missions.

Thomas Dewey Quinn, the original Air Marshal Director should be held criminally liable for the nepotism and waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars. Someone should look into the contract the FAM service signed for the original PDA's that we were issued. The ones that never worked but Quinn's wife made a lot of money on.

Just scratch the surface of the Dallas Office. Racism, Corruption Abuse of Power......

"It looked like Somalia, not the United States of America… There were dead bodies next to the baggage claim. There were guys with machetes trying to protect their families. One guy had an AR-15… People were urinating in buckets… It was like the end of the world. Federal Air Marshals are supposed to be pretty tough, but some of us were breaking down."

Those are the haunting words of a Federal Air Marshal (FAM) with whom I recently spoke, a man just back from a five-day tour of duty as part of a team evacuating victims of Hurricane Katrina out of New Orleans via the Louis Armstrong International Airport. FAMs were among the first law enforcement officers on the scene, tasked with a nearly impossible job: restore order at an airport where thousands were trying desperately to evacuate.

It started early Friday morning (September 2, 2005) with a message on his PDA: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had ordered all FAMs within driving distance of the New Orleans airport to get there as quickly and as safely as humanly possible.

To do so, approximately 30 FAMs from the Houston, Texas, office set out on the six-hour journey traveling in a convoy of Chevy Suburbans with the lights flashing. One group drove in a rented RV -- a choice that would prove critical as this vehicle would end up serving as FAMs command post once the group got to the airport. It would also house the hundreds of weapons the FAMs would eventually confiscate from the evacuees before they boarded passenger planes.

Once the FAMs arrived

at Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans and began to deploy, they found themselves playing every role imaginable. They handwrote passenger manifests, confiscated weapons that people were carrying to protect themselves, manned the jetways so passengers could get on board aircraft and even pushed the planes back from the gates.

One FAM in particular, a man with whom I have been in contact with many times in the past year (and who must remain anonymous because FAMs aren't allowed to talk to the press), shared his story with me.

War Zone
I asked the FAM what happened after the team arrived at the airport on September 2.

"When we got there, it was like a war zone. In the parking lot there were all these cars with the windows smashed in. All the radios had been stolen. It was lawless. No one was in control... There was trash and destruction all over the place. And then the airport doors opened and all these people came out. They looked like they had been through hell. Once we got inside, there were dead bodies everywhere. They were people that had evacuated the city -- they made it as far as the airport and then just died. It was total chaos. Total chaos… You know some of our guys [FAMs] are vets -- some just got back from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was totally unbelievable to them. It was rough -- we were loading the sick and dying out of 18-wheelers and onto planes. It was like a third world country. What we saw, it was lawlessness."

All of the Above & Much More is why I recently left. It's a joke & pitiful yet no one cares. All of us who came on right after 9/11 were SF, Feds or Cops with the tact experience needed. This is what happens when you have pencil pushing desk jockeys running the show. It's like putting carrot top in the UFC Ring!!! I feel bad for those who stay. But it's typical....reactionary & control.

I guess the Secret Service managers of the FAM Service were not able to censor and control ABC as they have other media outlets in the past. Inside info says that the SS cronies are in a panic over damage control already.

What I still find troubling is the fact that myself and several family members have written our congressmen on several occasions about the corruption of the FAM Service. Each and every one were ignored. We will each remember that at the polls.

I hope this 20/20 special starts a sweeping change in our service, my fear, the more things change the more the stay the same!

Until the SS is out of the FAM Service the problems will only continue. SS cronies are now in every branch of the government keeping the retires in second jobs after retirement. Congress needs to look into the behind the scenes control the SS exerts over all government operations.

FAMS are heroes. Their Secret Service retiree managers need to go back on retirement. I hope this report results in a re-interviewing of rank and file FAMS and a full reconsideration of the FAM agency policies and procedures.

I applied for the FAMS a few days after 9/11. I left a local law enforcement career of 13 years and spent 10 weeks away from my son to complete training. I believed and still believe, that what I do is necessary. I have given up much to be here, as everyone I work with has.

I am disgusted that FAMS management has turned a noble effort by many to protect our country's civil aviation, into a money making enterprise for themselves. Their only motivation is empire building and fleecing their personal portfolios. Otherwise, they would have strapped on a gun and worked flights over the holidays and elevated threat levels. I challenge them to work a schedule and then have the guts to call me an amateur! They can't hack it!

People like Don Strange and Frank Tererri threaten them.(management) They threaten them because they can and have done the job.

Those of you at the LAFO that don't thank Frank the next time you see him should be ashamed!He has given up much and taken alot of abuse to make things better for all of us!

I will continue with the mission because I believe in it! Those of you that don't believe anymore, I totally understand and don't blame you for leaving. I thank all of you for your dedication and "stepping up to the plate" when your country needed you!

Semper Fi!

Dear ABC,

Please keep up the fight and do not back down to the SS Management. We have given up everything to protect this country! We have been treated like dirt and ingnored for over four years, and if the Truth is not told we will be a broken sick bunch of folks who will not get so much as a Thank You from our managers. These people care about numbers, lying to Congress and keeping the status quo.

ALL THE WAY!

I don't know the FAM making this public appearance. I can only say that I admire him/her greatly and am hopeful that this appearance doesn't jeopardize his/her career. To him/her I say: I applaud and thank you for stepping up to the plate.

There are many FAMs who left careers in the wake of promises by the Federal Air Marshal Service only to be deceived and abused. Promises like the potential for promotion, a "family oriented agency", work weeks consisting of four days on three days off, the promise of transfers,etc. Any of this sounding familiar FAMs?

I sat through a few meetings with the upper management of the FAMS only to be subjected to ridicule and told countless times "if you don't like your job, there are thousands waiting to take your place".

We have consistently addressed our concerns to members of management only to be dismissed. This warranted the appeals to members of Congress, the Office of Special Counsel, OPR, GAO, and we have been practically screaming for someone, anyone to listen. The Federal Air Marshal Service seems to understand only two things, a lawsuit or negative media exposure.

Many of us are suffering greatly with the mismanagement of the FAM Service. I've seen countless in divorce proceedings, custody battles, medical complications, etc. All of which could have been resolved with a simple transfer to another office or an adjustment in scheduling.

Many of us signed on to the FAM mission in the pursuit of protecting the families of the United States only to have our own families suffer.

ABC needs to further investigate the FAM Service. Start asking questions about how much the ATSAC does for his/her 130K per year. (Hint: Mostly Clerical Work). Ask about the land based assignments designed to relieve the stress of FAMs flying so many hours with an irratic schedule. Ask about why they sent an ATSAC (who doesn't fly) to one of those land based positions.

FAMS are unsung heroes. Secret Service retiree managers' club of FAM service need to offered early outs in the interest of the service. They do indeed make almost 200k per year. They do indeed make puzzling, inconsistent decisions, arbitrary, thoughtlessly punitive decisions, or no decisions at all unless their old-agency Secret service cronies at HQ tells them what to do. They do indeed have no substantive FAM training, no FAM experience. We need many more FAMS so that they can work a more reasonable schedule that conforms with aviation employee medical and workplace standards. FAM training has indeed been sharply reduced in time, intensity, and content, facitlities, and training has been watered down and is often used as babysitting and time filler. FAM trainers are often less capable then they were 4 years ago. FAMS need better equipment, and more carefully thought out equipment, instead of using just what the Secret Service used to carry that is not ideally suited to aircraft environments.
I write this in fear of retaliation, because the current FAMS management will spend more time hunting down dedicated employees who speak the unclassified truth than trying to fix problems.

The key to this issue is just where are the security measures taking place, in America. That’s right, in the land of the not so free, and the home of the not so brave.

Our founding fathers fought and died so they could give us the freedom and liberty that we are so afraid of enjoying. We fought wars so we would not have tyranny and the search checkpoints like the nations we waged war against. In the name of security, we’ve since given up our Liberty.

Today millions of Americans line up like sheep when we enter government buildings, airports, bus, train and even mass transit subways. We allow the unlawful invasion of our privacy, papers and body by the likes of rent-a-cops.

Instead of the courts protecting our freedoms the judges charged with that duty jumped on the bandwagon to engage in this vile practice themselves in their own courthouses.

The airlines and the FAA were and are a danger to Americans. They created unenforceable weapon free zones that facilitated the horrible events of 9/11. They disarmed the thousands of well trained, off duty local and state police officers that regularly fly in these planes. They will never be able to plug all the holes in the system to violent attacks and they know it.

Despite their crackdown on old ladies knitting needles and children we are no safer then we were before. Of course taxpayer’s money was thrown everywhere by our politicians making their incumbency a sure thing with the help of the new government contractor’s political contributions.

The government needed a fix for the airlines that were hemorrhaging passengers. Was that because passengers were afraid to fly for fear of terrorists? Was it because of people like me looking to avoid the degrading contact with low paid, poorly educated, arrogant, little airport screeners?

The “fix’ was the TSA. That sounded impressive until you find out that the upper management is not made up of law enforcement professionals but by patronage hacks. You see the TSA is not even a law enforcement agency. These civilian hacks have a force of Federal Air Marshals under their supervision.

Instead of simply turning over the police work to cops, the very same bureaucrats that brought us to 9/11 created and are now in charge of the new, TSA.

To cover their ineptitude the TSA learned to classify otherwise public information to hide nearly all of their failings.

Let’s examine some jewels of the TSA. The, “no fly” list come to mind. That’s a database that contains names, lots of names. I guess these experts somehow believe that terrorists would always use their own names when making airline reservations. There is no major city in the United States where you can’t get convincing looking identification documents for a small price. If you have the know how of any college freshman you can even make your own

The low wattage, rent-a-cops or the airline employees screening passengers don’t even know what they’re looking at or looking for when they examine those ID’s that passengers flash.

As for improvised weapons TSA has not learned anything from our own jails and prisons. Without giving a primer on weapon making the average jailbird after he’s searched can quickly make weapons much deadlier that the box cutters used on 9/11.

The searching and bomb sniffing at our airports is nothing more than a lot of really expensive smoke and mirrors.

Instead of keeping weapons off planes they need to figure ways of getting more real trained cops on planes instead of the federal air marshals that lack street crime experience that real cops have. That means that they should encourage cops to fly armed.

Pilots are trusted with a multimillion-dollar aircraft and thousands of lives. We need to train and arm all of them. The pilots that don’t want to participate can go flip hamburgers somewhere.

We need to have the Supreme Court revisit the Fourth Amendment and give us back or right against these unlawful and unreasonable searches.

If President Bush is as smart and sincere as he claims to be, he will not allow the lying damage control former Secret Service double dipping spin doctors, in the upper management of the Federal Air Marshall Service respond to any of the,readily provable, allegations of corruption by FAMS management currently coming to light.

Malfeasance in the government in any department is un acceptable. When blatent lawlessness is running rampent and unchecked in a federal law enforcement agency the President should address this situation personally and swiftly.

He should have the entire matter, immediately and thoroughly, investigated by persons that are not a part of the current or former Secret Service culture.

In addition he should investigate any and all information for erroneious data that he may have received on the gross attrictan rate of Federal Air Marshals that have left the service and why ?

We as taxpayers spent huge amounts of money to train the fine dedicated law professionals and we deserve to know how and why FAMS upper management has been allowed to destroy so many of their careers and lives.

Could it be that they have been covering up thier illegal activities to the president ? If I was President I sure as heck would find out in short order and take swift action in the entire matter.

Get rid of the corrupt former Secret Service that have been appointed or cronied into our nations federal law enforcement.

They have a SS flaw of believing that they are above the law and no accountability.

I hope he does not make the same mistake as Nixon, by becoming part of a massive cover up of criminal activity in the government. He should clean out the FAMS MANAGEMENT house at all levels and replace them with qualified rank and file experienced law enforcement professional FAM's.

Now is the time for Bush to regain the respect and support of his federal law enforcement community.God help him and the Republican party if he ignores or covers this extensive corruption.

God Bless all of those that have had the courage to step forward and be counted. The price has been high, but your commitment to the rule of law is higher.

To see what is right and not do - is lack of courage

ABC -- Please ask Congress why it doesn't have GAO establish a special hearing commitee that will grant current and former air marshals the opportunity to speak out to congressional investigators and to be explicitly protected from retaliation and shielded from being shut off from promotions and advancement. GAO needs to establish a way for these air marshals to arrange to speak to GAO without knowledge of peers or management. This is the only way to get to the truth about issues of stressed work conditions, lack of advancement and career development opportunities, lack of appeal rights and procedures in response to disciplinary action by managers, inappropriate equipment and inappropriate equipment policies which overly restrict air marshals' use of holsters, weapons, and protective gear, lack of realistic and fair approaches to fitness and health issues, lack of reasonable training buildings and sites and opportunities to receive training, lack of a consistent and fair promotion procedure, lack of transparency in promotion procedures and advancement opportunities, and WHY AIR MARSHALS PAY IS FROZEN AT PAYBAND "I" WITH VIRTUALLY NO OPPORTUNITY FOR RAISES OR STEP INCREASES WITHIN GRADE FOR THE ENTIRE REMAINDER OF THE AIR MARSHALS CAREER. This last issue of pay contradicts all other federal law enforcement officers pay policies. Please ask Congress why the air marshals alone must burden under a pay system which leaves them no chance for raises after the third or fourth year while all other federal law enforcement officers can incrementally increase their pay throughout their entire careers, not just the first four years or so.

Is this what the public wants on their planes? A disgruntled air marshal that has not received a raise in years? Could that be why at least one air marshal was caught smuggling drugs for money?

Paul-

Street cops in planes? With no additional training? Don't make me laugh. I was a street cop and currently am a FAM and I'll tell you its a night and day difference. The tactics you need to secure a hijacked airplane won't be found working the streets. You need specialized training. What street work will give you is the tools, but you need to field-strip them and refine them to a particular environment.

All the FAMs I know have worked in LEO jobs prior to coming to the FAMS, many of them ex-SWAT. Lots of ex-spec ops guys too. Sorry chief, you're barking up the wrong tree.

Unreasonable search and seizure? Its called a consent search. If you're the LEO you imply you are you'll know the term.

What is the stat authority of a pilot? Are they LEOs? What's their use of force? What training? The current FFDO program is one thing, what you're talking about is something else. I want to hear the minutae of your program, if you've thought about it.

Maybe everyone needs to take a step back & count to ten... now review some 9/11 footage of the Pentagon on fire, the Twin Towers collapsing and the farmland set ablaze from UA Flight #93. We perform our duties to protect what we cherish - which our enemies are willing to die to take away from all Americans. Not on my watch - everything else is moot when the flight door closes and we take off. We get paid to do a job - more so, took an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign AND domestic. Office politics, etc. need to be played out in a proper manner without dirty laundry being aired in the general news media. No offense to ABC News, USA Today etc. Life has improved on some aspects and I have faith that changes are coming along. We all know that nothing changes overnight - the FAMS is a very young agency compared to the DOJ, FBI & USSS. Let’s keep our visions on the continued mission ahead and build form the rock solid foundation of the workforce that I feel honored to be a part. The FAMS can and should become the crème de le crème of Federal Law Enforcement just based on the various areas of expertise which makes up our workforce. I hope that all this attention will lead to a constructive direction of attaining what we started off with – a noble mission made up of patriots willing to make the sacrifices required to keep the skies safe. If I may borrow a phrase from Linda Beamer’s book as well as from the hero himself – Todd: “Are you ready? LET’S ROLL!!!”

To "FAM"

Much of what you say about the flying FAMs are correct, but your wrong on this count....the problems of the FAM service are not becuase it is a young agency. The problems of the FAM service are because it is a young agency whose immediate future was intentionally hijaked by a mob of roaming, retirned secret service managers who follow each other like locusts from federal agency to federal agency, feeding off of it until all the energy and intertia is gone. This is true of the TSA Internal Affairs office too. which is why TSA IA is useless to the illegal and unethical actions of many FAM managers. Like any self-contained group retired secret service FAM managers act first in their own interest to perpetuate their own retirements and financial well being. After that, they make decisions for the FAM service. It is because of those secret service retired manager decisions that so many excellent air marshals have moved onto other federal agencies or quit federal service altogether. When the best FAMs leave, what remains is a very small core of hardcore FAMs, and a whole lot of comlacent, apathetic FAMs who just want to sit, ride, and collect travel per diem.
This dirty laundry must be aired here because frustrated dedicated FAMs are unable to influence changes within the agency because if you didn't come from the secret service, you're opinion doesnt' carry water.

Paul said:

"Instead of keeping weapons off planes they need to figure ways of getting more real trained cops on planes instead of the federal air marshals that lack street crime experience that real cops have."

Paul, with all due respect, have you lost your marbles? I had 15 years as a city cop and as a border patro agent. My best guess is approximately one third of the air marshals hired after 9/11 came from the border patrol. I would say that 90% of the air marshals in my field office were prior "street cops".

So where do you get your statistics from? Your obviously not an air marshal or you would have never given your name publically OR made such an ignorant statement. Please don't spout off inaccuracies you no nothing about.

And lastly, 75% of everything I learned as a "street cop" I had to UNLEARN to become an effective Federal Air Marshal.

So tell me Paul, when was the last time a street cop was personally responsible for the lives of 300 people, had no radio, and had no back-up. Hmmm?

Anybody remember the IG report that came out a few years ago that stated that there were some fams that shouldn't have been hired because of criminal background checks and termination from their old agency? No where in that report did it report the SS supervisors. You know,--the ones that had less than stellar careers and were being forced out of their old job, or had sexual harassment claims and multiple lawsuits levied against them and the agency? GAO and DHS/TSA IG investigators will not look into these matters because ex-SS work there as well.

Think about the average, hard working, middle class, bring your lunch pail to work, VOTING citizens getting screwed by the big corporations these days. The Federal Air Marshal Service, as somebody rightly put it, is the government version of Enron and Tyco. Just take a look at the contracts for our PDAs and our cell phones and see who personally benefited from them. These SS supervisors are looking at the FAMS as their personally owned organization regarding staffing, promotions, contracts etc.. Instead of taking their fiduciary responsibility of good governance seriously, they continue the SS creed of arrogance that if you complain about all my misdeeds, your career is over.

In closing, I can't even describe to you the level of arrogance that is at the FAMS. One SAC at a field office once gloated and I quote, "the President can't even fire me!-- so go ahead and file what you want." This is not going to change anything unless the PODUS gets involved. The only way the PODUS gets involved is if the polls this November show the Dems taking back the Senate and/or the House. Until then, I'm not holding my breath, but I am holding out hope that someone in positions of great power will read this and "do the right thing, because it's the right thing to do..."

MY SON IS AN AIR MARSHAL, WHO IS A FORMER EOD, AND TEACHES HOW TO IDENTIFY EXPLOSIVES. RECENTLY HE WAS INVOLVED WITH WRITING PROCEDURES FOR THE AIRPORT SCREENERS. HE FOUGHT WITH THE BEUACRATS FOR A WEEK TO GET A PROCEDURE WRITTEN, TO NO AVAIL. ABOUT A MONTH LATER AN EMAIL WAS SENT OUT THAT THE PROCEDURE WAS NOT WORKING AND MY SON WAS SEVERLY REPRIMADED AND REMINDED THAT HE WAS NOT TO TALK TO NEWS MEDIA ABOUT THIS SITUATION. THIS SITUATION WAS DEVELPED BECAUSE A LOT RETIRED SECRET SERVICE PEOPLE WERE HIRED AND THEY ARE SUCH A CLOSED GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT THYE WILL NOT LET ANYONE PRIVY TO THEIR CIRCLE

I agree completely with 'ANOTHER fAM's" comments. However, what upsets me is that afterall the mismanegement, good old boy SS network, abuse, fraud, etc. not to mention that our former director(Quin)did not have security clearance, is the lack of accountability...criminal accountability agianst all these former SS people for turning a fine agency and our lives into crap.

The fact that many Air Marshals are willing to take a large ($10k-$20k) pay cut just to get off this sinking ship is very telling.

"So tell me Paul, when was the last time a street cop was personally responsible for the lives of 300 people, had no radio, and had no back-up. Hmmm?"

** Hey Detroit Air Marshal - how about when a rural deputy or Twp. Police officer is out on patrol 3rd shift, with no back-up - and was personally responsible for a community of 200,000???? Hmmmmm.....

In response to the Retired Federal LEO:

There will always be guns on airplanes. Federal officers from all agencies fly armed every day, as I am sure you did. Do you think they will give that up? I don't think so.

Air Marshals are the only federal officers who train for that specific environment. So, which guns did you want to remove? Who will handle a hostage situation or a suicide-bomber? The pilots? They will only be able to watch helplessly with the video cameras that you suggested installing. Meanwhile, the F-16's will be solving the problem.

Think again....FAMS are needed and may God be with each and every one of them.

The Federal Air Marshal program within DHS is not the only Agency with the discrimination, hostile work environment, and reprisal for whistle-blowing, etc. problems. They are also alive and well within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detention and Removal Operations. This Division is still being controlled by the legacy INS Directors that caused the initial problems long before the Bush Administration. Here is another Agency that needs to be investigated for cover-up violations and the story revealed to the public.

I personally worked for this organization when it was located in Atlantic City. I worked in the travel operations section. As a contractor hired by the goverment to set up this program it became clear very quickly that it would become what it is today. The people that they brought in to run things had no experience in this type of organization (this is why we were brought in) and were constantly trying to change things that made no sense wasting time and energy. The management was simply a good ole boys club and it was apparent that favoritism happened constantly. When they decided to move operations to Washington DC it was simply to make it easier for the higher ups. Not for saving money, not for better facilities it was simply the head guys didnt want to come to NJ where it ran efficiently and cost effectively. Because of this move over 80 employee's were displaced and separated from their families and still things are not run as they should and the favoritism runs rampant! Because I did not roll with the boys I was made a scape goat and released from my job duties with no reasons and it was implied that if I did anything to fight it there would be problems. I am glad to be out there and believe me I hear the horror stories weekly from my old staff on how poorly the operations are done and the waste that goes on.

As a wife of a Federal Air Marshal, it is a relief to see someone cares enough to air some the gross negligence happening every day by the FAMS. I fear that my husband might not come home one day due to his own agency's ridiculous policies. When my husband says that the best thing that can happen to the Federal Air Marshal Service is its disbandment, I agree. The government is allowing unqualified management to set up their own agents for failure. I would rather not have a Federal Air Marshal aboard my flight than have one that everyone can readily identify.

Although the FAMS management is utterly the worst I have ever experienced in my 14-year career, a lot of the blame for current ticketing and boarding proceedures goes to the Airline Pilot's Association. The pilots' union pushes our agency with this issue because some pilots (a very small minority) have to appease their egos and have the FAMS preboard to "brief" the crew. I have not given a brief for over three years. Still, the Federal Air Marshal Service should have been assertive with these issues early-on instead of trying to appease a few pilot's inferiority complexes and relenting. Now, their union dictates our operating proceedures.

Street Cop Said,

"Hey Detroit Air Marshal - how about when a rural deputy or Twp. Police officer is out on patrol 3rd shift, with no back-up - and was personally responsible for a community of 200,000???? Hmmmmm....."

If you can tell me how one street cop protects 200,000 people, all sitting in the same room at the same time, and how a "bad guy", with one simple criminal act can kill all 200,000 of those people at the same time, and that your police department does not have radio communications, and that all the other police officers in your county, surrounding counties, and even the state police, are all off duty, except you, then I'll have no choice but to agree with you.

Did you know that Air Marshals in Miami were threatened with the Patriot Act if we talked to the press?????.

Can somebody explain why this agency has so many EEO complaints based on discrimination?

Can somebody explain why the EEO is not investigating?

At this time my mind is numb!

I am a current FAM and former Cop in a rural area. Lets no argue between blue about this.. Two different jobs.

The SS problem is not only with the FAMS, it's throughout TSA. TSA is on a drive to rootout all former FAA personnel. If people took a good look at TSA, they would see all the FSD's hired, 95% or more have no prior Aviation security experience. All promoations are not done on experience, if you apply for a promotion the higher ups don't even request a promotion list. When ASI's are apply for a position, they are told they don't qulify for the job they are currently doing and are applying for a higher grade position. TSA as whole need to be investigated. I agree the investigation needs to done with individuals with no ties with TSA. That's my 2 cent worth.

FAMS agency within the past year has had over 600 reported job related injuries.

There is only person within the whole FAM organization that makes the decision if the traumatic injury is acceptable and will receive Continuation of Pay (aka COP). This Workers’ Comp manager for the FAMS agency was bought in by the past Director to control the number of injuries.

Now according to the Department of Labor’s Federal Employees’ Compensation Act; Public Law 103-3 section §8118: a) The United States shall authorize the continuation of pay of an employee, as defined in section 8101(1) of this title (other than those referred to in clause (B) or (E)), who has filed a claim for a period of wage loss due to a traumatic injury with his/her immediate supervisor!!!

I’ve seen a couple of FAMS who have been injured and the frustration that they have to go through, when there’s sufficient documentation, to get approval for COP from a WC manager in HQ and not their own SAC, ASAC or ATSAC?

How does a manager (with no law enforcement background?)sitting in HQ get to call the shots on an injured FAM?

Vegas, you are absolutely right, EEO is dismissing cases without investigating. It seems that they are throwing the towel on managers that are discriminating against minorities. According to statistics, Miami is the worst, followed by Las Vegas and we have a few in Orlando. TSA is not taking this seriously.

I joined the FAM Service to protect my country. Now I have to protect my self from FAM management only because I am Latino. I worry every day about the possibility of losing my job for being Latino.

TSA Office of Civil Rights is a smoke screen. They do not investigate complaints. Want proof? Look up the TSA website and click on the Office of Civil Rights link; then click on the link to their stats. The Office of Civil Rights has lost employees because of the Agencys' ill attempts to simulate their interest in resolving the racism issues within the TSA and FAM Service.

Managers claim and have proven to some extent to be immune form prosecution because they worked with OIG before working with the FAMS.

At the Miami Field Office, they had the tendency to ask FAMs to resign if they were found to develop any type of medical condition. FAMs were afraid of management because they were threatened with termination and possible prosecution under the patriot act if they spoke to congress or the press about any agency issue. Hispanics had it worst than the rest of the employees.

I sure hope John Ferrugia of ABC 7 in Denver is assisting in all this. Ferrugia - You da man!!!!!!

Every time there is an investigation in Miami, the supervisors select who they want to speak with the investigators. No one else in the office is advised of the presence of these investigators. I wonder why? Is it because management has something to hide?

Besides, the final GAO report sent to congress about the Patriot Act threats investigation was misleading. They weren’t exactly lying to congress, but they mislead Congress. I know this because I was present with another 45 - 50 FAMs when the threats were made by management and when one of the investigators stated in a room fulll of FAMs that he did find evidence of this and other violations which he was forwarding to the DOJ for further investigation. - I know guys; what investigation?

While I agree with most of the things my fellow FAMs have posted, please exercise prudence. No need to tell the public how we do things. Think of your security and the security of your partners and your family members when they fly.

If you want changes done, concentrate in your energy in disclosing the ineptitude and abuse of power of most managers. Remember that not all of them are bad. Maybe 97% of them are, but not all.

I do agree in telling the public abut how much money managers are making on top of their retirements as it is tax payers like us that are being ripped off.

Why should tax payers pay a FAMS manger around $200,000 to $250,000 or so for a position that a flying FAM can perform with roughly 50% of that. If you calculate this amount by the amount of managers we have, the Agency would save hundreds of thousands of dollars every year; and this is a modest amount compared with the original numbers.

If you do a field survey you will find that the FAM Service counts with career Law Enforcement Officers with experience as former Chiefs of Police, former Assistant Special Agents in Charge or Assistant Chiefs for other Federal Agencies. We also count with a vast array of experience from former SWAT Officers, Military and Police Special Operations Unit members and Law Enforcement personnel, Supervisors and Managers from many different Law Enforcement Organizations.

The problem with the Agency is its management personnel. Just look at how many of us are willing to take a $20,000 to $30,000 cut in pay to get away from this agency after we volunteered to do this job because we like what we do.

Congress should appoint a special Congressional Committee to investigate other issues that I refuse to discuss in here because of the obvious implications. If congress appoints this committee, they will find much more information and have better results than those they could expect from any other department as investigators in these other departments know some FAMS managers. Remember that some managers claim to be immune form prosecution because they worked with or know people at the OIG.

I had posted a few comments earlier in the week. I would like to add the fact I was assaulted by a manager and my personal items forcefully taken from me without a warrant at which time I was held against my will and questioned and then told to lie when writing my "Administrative Inquiry". I filed a police report and asked for charges to be filed, however, the local police department refused to do so. They stated they did not want to get involved with the incident but would however make a police report.

Mr. Ross, If you would like to interview me you can respond to my email address and I will send you my personal numbers. Thank you for what you are doing and please continue.

The interesting thing about all of these complaints is that while we are an agency with office’s nation wide, we (the flying FAM’s) are having the same trouble with management. How is it possible that the LA Field Office and the Miami Field Office FAM’s are dealing with the same identical issues; unless of course this behavior of intimidation and favoritism is something that is promoted from HQ. I believe the great men and women who took this job did so for all the right reasons. Unfortunately abusive management is chasing off some of our best people. You have to wonder what will make a person leave this job for a $20,000 - $30,000 pay cut. I would love to see the figures on how much it cost the tax payers to recruit, train, and deploy a FAM. Our management’s attitude is that they can treat FAM’s anyway they want, if we quit so what. They have 1,000’s of other people wanting our jobs at a lower salary. What a waist of tax payer’s money. Can you imagine running a business this way? Our next Director should be Ken Lay.

I read thru all these posting and I want to add something of my own. I am retired FAM; more like forced to retire. I was part of a group of 6 Hispanic FAMs that were forced to resign. There was an EEOC investigation that uncovered that our allegations of racial discrimination, mistreatment and coercion were all true. But after 3 years, the Office of Civil Liberties has not yet held accountable the SAC or any other supervisor for their actions and their lies. The office of civil liberties is covering up the racial discrimination that the TSA and FAMS is plagued with. For the looks of it, it appears that the problem has plagued the entire FAM service. Unlike me, some FAMs filed EEO complaints and have been able to keep their jobs. How long will they be able to work before they are fired or forced to resign, is a question of luck. Yes, luck; because the Agency has not done anything to protect their rights and for what I hear management is constantly harassing these guys and trying to set them up. I hope that one day justice is served and both my EEO case, as well and the cases of those that are still working for the FAMS are properly addressed and someone is held accountable for these violations of law and civil rights. My former SAC once said during a meeting, “I used to work for OIG, they can’t touch me”. I was told that during the EEOC investigation, it was discovered that the SAC used to be the Chief of Staff for OIG before he took the position as Miami SAC. He was not lying, he did work for OIG. Now, will OIG really protect him as he stated; as the Offie of Civil Liberties of TSA is protecting him and other managers as well? Lets see.

If the public only knew how much worse this Agency is than what is even being described...

Everything Frank has to say is true! I only wish he had more air-time to tell the rest. The odds of another aircraft flying into a building for a second 911 is 100%.
The SS has caused To many problems to list. They are endangering the flying public everyday. Speak up AMERICA, Your family could be on the next 911 flight!

One of the most important issues to me that seems to get lost in all of this is our HEALTH.
Nobody is addressing what flying 5 days a week is doing to us. In other nations that marshals work for 2-3 years and are then rotated out.
These idiots that are in charge are just thinking about their numbers. The FAM medical department is a joke.
These flight schedules beat you up. There is no recovery time and if you need to take a day off for your own well being, you get harassed.
Instead of just throwing us on any flight possible, utililize our abilities in the many other facets of air travel that need to be scrutinized more closely. Believe it or not, I was a damn good cop who is now a tired body with a gun on a plane who everybody knows is there.

How can you justify $140K+ for these guys to show up at the office, have a coffee, shoot ther bull and then leave stating that they are going to "check" on my team.
I never see my manager at the airport.
If a reporter wants to break a big story of abuse just go undercover and follow a few of these managers around for a few days.
Like to one who got a parking ticket at the mall in a gove ride in another state during work hours. He never was reprimanded.
Yet if you don't pre-board infront of everyone to try to protect yourself, you get suspended for a day at the NY office.

I was a Federal Air Marshal for 20 years prior to 9/11 and we never announced our identity to the passengers. It is obvious what they are doing. TSA is playing the Public Relations game at the expense of the Marshals safety and the flying public. They think they can get more public support if the Marshals identify themselves before or during the flight. They think the passengers (the flying public) will feel safer and think our Govt is really concerned about our saftey. Time for a change folks !

Finally someone has the courage to speak out about what is really going on within the FAM organization! My husband has been a FAM for the past 4 years. He has never missed a mission, rarely calls out sick (3 times since he started the job) and did not encounter any problems with management until recently. He was written up for basically something that he had absolutely no control over. They said he had gone against guidelines, which he definitely did not do. He wrote a memo back stating he felt the situation needed to be looked at again. Management's answer to that was a definite no and that they were not going to reconsider anything. Just take the punishment and leave us alone kind of atti