Don Strange used to be the Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Federal Air Marshal Service Field Office.

Don Strange was the talk of the FAM Service because we would always see Atlanta FAMs wearing casual clothes, meanwhile we in DC and many other offices were mandated to wear full matching dark suits with ties (hangman's nooses).

We all had to get military haircuts and shave clean while Atlanta FAMs had regular haircuts and had facial hair.

Suddenly we all heard that he had been fired.

Dana Brown should be forced to retire AGAIN and Don Strange should be the new Director.

What do you expect when lawyers and bureaucrats run an operation...a set of policies that makes them feel good... but are not practical. The Federal Air Marshalls are front line defense for us. How about listening to their ideas instead of the lawyers?? Let get real and change this ASAP!

Well Gee Whiz, maybe our spineless, ineffective congress can get the Federal Air Marshall bureaucrats to answer their questions. Of course, nothing will be done until we suffer another terrorist attack. Our Homeland Security and Air Marshall office are pathetic.

Why is this agency putting all their men in a few hotels? Shouldn't they each be traveling under some ruse as businessmen and staying all over the place? I would feel safer when I travel for business if I knew some of the other guests were Air Marshals. Air Marshals are trained to kill suicidal terrorists with no back-up. I would love for there to be one around and see what happens to the next mugger going after lost travelers outside a hotel.

Who is this Don Strange guy? He sounds pretty sharp. I thought the story was all of the management was corrupt???

I would just like to know that my husband doesn't wear a sign on his forehead that says Federal Air Marshal. As a wife of someone in this business I can say that the idiots that run this department are nothing more than idiots. Anyone off the street could run the Federal Air Marshal Service better than these guys.

As a former TSA supervisor this is not a new problem. This has been going on since day one. The upper management's failure to listen to the best security people (the Air Marshalls)about how procedures should be conducted verus how they will be conducted. A perfect example is their dress code, they do not blend in with the public they stick out like a sore thumb. And as zimmer stated nothing will be done until there is another 9/11. Welcome to Washington policy.

"Here's your Sign"..... Oh I'm sorry, looks like we already handed it to them.

I feel much safer when I fly knowing that there are these highly trained Federal Marshal's are on domestic flights. However the supervisor's of these Air Marshal's should be terminated and they should provide active Air Marshal's a chance to become supervisors. Who would know better how to run the agency than the one's who actively fly everyday.

I want to see these idiot bureaucrats put in jail for endangering those guys. They sit there to protect us all. They need every tool to win, not every handicap these moronic managers can think up. Who came up with the bright idea to pay the bosses so damn much? I don't make $200,000 in three years and I bust my behind every day.

Congress better do something before someone gets injured.

I have been able to pick out the marshals on many flights. I am just a saleman and I have no law enforcement experience. It should not be that easy. I see now it is not the Air Marshall's fault, but the rules he has to abide by.

Have any of the Air Marshal managers seen United 93? Do they even know why they are there? Maybe someone needs to let them talk to some of the flight 93 crew's family members so they can get a reality check. Do your jobs right men.

Why don't they hire the 'ghost shoppers' security that roam thelocal WalMart? Cheap and they blend in. Hell, pay me to travel around this country, sit in seat 22F, and eat the peanuts, all while wearing a Hawiian shirt and socks-n-sandals and annoying all the passengers by discussing my gout, too loudly, to anyone within earshot.
Train me in all the arts of air defense and handling/firing a weapon in a crowded aircraft, etc., of course.
Isn't blending into the surroundings a major key to "human intelligence"??

Ridiculous. As a former police officer, I know that any moderately competent department could do better. Dress should be designed to vary appearance while providing cover for weapons. Random pattern hotels, travel separately, and no public ID checks. TSA screening points should include "Quality Control" observers charged only with detecting individuals watching screenings attempting to identify marshalls.

With this level of "insecurity", maybe we'd be better off to hand out to all the passengers a handgun instead of peanuts. Then any terrorist would think twice about hijacking an airplane.

Air Marshals are NOT undercover agents. We have been told that repeatedly by management in our particular office. It has been explained to us that by operating in a "high-profile" rather than covert status it serves as a deterent to terrorists as well as a comfort for the traveling public. Existing policies clearly enforce this view. The initial ramp up of the air marshal program after the attacks of September 11th 2001 did focus on covert operations with the primary mission being to prevent commercial aircraft from being overtaken and used as weapons once again. After the agency was taken over by former Secret Service officers the primary mission was altered to produce political results rather than actually focusing on the prevention of hijackings. Current management continues to belittle the Air Marshals, betray the nation and focus on non-essential areas instead of aviation security. It is an incredible shame that many good people have been run away from an essential, but poorly run agency.

If you only knew what it is really like there...

Good ol republicans, they like to boast what they can do, they like to look in-charge, they like to start progams to make people happy, only problem is that they don't know how to run anything and they don't fund it either. They just want your vote and then want you to go back to sleep.

It's so true, in Philly, Pittsburgh, Newark, Boston, et al, the management is concerned with two things. How they look in the eyes of their supervisors, and two how much more money can they rip off from the taxpaying public.

They suspended a friend of mine for not having a sports coat. No verbal warning, no written reprimand,straight to a suspension, in clear violation of TSAs own policy of progressive discipline. Can you believe that??? Then the second time he was suspended, it was for not having it, but for carrying it instead of wearing it.

These double dipping, manhole guarding, non-investigating, cowards REFUSE to listen to the advice of persons with decades of experience. We are called peabrains and cowards for speaking up.

The day of reckoning has come.

My father would roll over in his grave, as a man who placed a high value on common sense. Why don't they just have them sit in a designated seat, with a sign above that says, "Air Marshal." In case of an attempted hijacking, the terrorists will simply take them out first. How ludicrous.

Its pretty sad to know that your spouse may not make it home one day because he/she was targeted by a terrorist. The "BIG BOSSES" do not know one thing abouth the Air Marshals jobs. All they do is sit around the office asks their guys for ideas to better the dept. they take the ideas up to the "BIGGIES" get credit for the ideas and put on the job the favorites in the office. Well the ones that are not lucky enough to be liked by the superiors (The retired secret service/ FBI's making the big bucks)have to go out and be marked by the bad guys. Not only did they not get raises (only the chosen ones) but then they are'nt allowed to dress like the rest of the passengers. They should make these bosses go out on the field and see what it really means to work.

I remember when the program first started I was flying back from Washington DC to Minneapolis. We had Air Marshals on our plane. It was obvious. The ticket people kept asking the guy questions and you could see him getting madder and madder. Great undercover. He had to explain why he didn't have a ticket and why he had to board ahead of time. And he had to do it in front of the entire group of board and curious passengers.