Why do I detect another "you're doing a heckuva job Brownie" moment here with this new director and his new spokesman?

A less grueling schedule is a good thing, however, I remember from the previous report that anonymity is the key issue. If you display marshals names at the front desks of major hotel chains and require them to "announce" themselves to the general public at the flight's check-in, you may as well hand them a big sign to hang on their back. Come on guys.... surely we can do better.

every thing's secret. after we ran off the actual profrssionals and replaced them with clowns chosen by idiots we can't talk to you. now after the place implodes and we have to privatize the air marshals with renta cops we'll mention that maybe. however all the money the appointees make on the side with endorsements, kick backs and so forth, the BMWs, the country houses, hookers, we can't talk about that at all. it's all legal but we can't talk about it. you're just being nosey; oh by the way you'll notice your grandparents medicare has been cancelled as we speak. maybe you ought to run along and take care of that..............

The "more time on the ground" is called an NMS day 9no mission scheduled) so congress thinks we are not flying those days. In reality we are called the night before or on the day of an NMS to fly missions. These are not shown to congress. What a bunch of hooey.
Can anyone in the Agency be honest?

What do you think the "Q" stands for in QTEC (maker of our PDA's)???.......Duhh....Quinn!!!

More rest time..?? Grueling flight days..?? Like, there's waiting in ticket lines, checking luggage, body search lines and flight delays involved with the job. Give me a break..!! Big fat salary and a big fat comfee seat on the plane with room service. The flight marshals have a legitimate gripe involving the boarding ID problem. It should be kept secret until the agent is boarded and then ID made known to the flight attendants.

THIS IS A FRAUD! Don't be fooled! Quinn tried this gimmick a couple a years ago and called these "Office Days". We were told beck then that we would be able to take a break from flying. In reality, we got calls the night before and were given schedules. Even worse, many guys showed up to the field office for their "Office Day", and many times hours into the day, we would get our supervisors coming up to us and informing us that "you got a flight in 30 minutes, get your butt to the airport ASAP". Then we would have to do a 12-14 hour day. In the mean time, the FAMS would send to Congress all these wonderful schedules showing all of these "office days" that the FAMs supposedly never flew on. Director Brown has now brought out the exact same scheme, but is giving it a totally different name of "Non-Mission Status". Notice the new name is even more FAM friendly? I would like for other FAMs to state on this forum, how many times they have flown while supposedly being on "Non-Mission Status". THIS IS YET ANOTHER FRAUD brought to you by the next generation of former Secret Service Agents.

As a FAM I would like to know where these " fewer flying hours" are. I fly 10 -12 hour days. As long as retired SS personel are at the helm our agency will continue to be a laughing stock. Management does not know what honest is and they do not care about flying FAMs. As for the "working groups" there are not many flying FAMs there. And if a complaint is brought up by an actual flying FAM his supervisor is notified. Then the retaliation begins.

While the allegations made by the FAMs is indeed correct, it leads to an even larger problem as yet not mentioned. The additional concerns are that ALL Law Enforcement Officers/Agents (LEO's) are required to not only idendtify themselfs to TSA staff at the checkpoints, but that we are also required to identify ourselfs at lease 2 additional times. One again at the gate counter-again in fornt of any other travelers that may be in the area, and the second time as we are boarding the aircraft when we talk to the Captain and/or FAMS should there be FAMS on the flight.
All this badge flashing while we are "attempting" to maintain a covert status & control any prisoners that we may have in our custory. There are other ways of boarding LEO's than marching us in front of the normal traveling public, making us stand out.

"The spokesman said the review was already underway before the ABC News broadcast"

Oh really? I'm sure Brown was in charge of that "...review was already underway...", while Quinn was still the Head Master.

Let's be real. Brown has been in upper management for many years and it takes him 4 months to realize things need to be changed.

Wow that is an example of proactive leadership. Nipping the problems in the bud, hitting the deck running and listening to the guys in the field!!

Just remember, Brown has already played musical chairs with the top management, given them new titles and more money. In a previous statement he fronted the idea that he could take action or take NO ACTION on the "working group" recommendations.

Sorry to say, history shows the latter will be what happens.

One thing that continues to be ignored is the fact that flying so much (wheth in cushy first class seats or not) is going to ruin the health of the fittest person. Giving physicals to these guys once every other years is pretty pathetic. What to you do with the 50 year old FAM with bad vision and hearing from flying so much? You can talk about how much money they make, but I would like to see anyone fly that much and not have serious health issues.

Why won't the Federal Air Marshal Service own up to the fraud they committed regarding the last set of supervisor promotions at the Washington Field Office? AVUE--an HR company that was hired to screen and select the best candidates forwarded a list of names to the hiring manager for review last Fall. The hiring manager subsequently ignored the highly educated and qualified list of applicants and promoted less qualified applicants not on the highly qualified list, most of whom came from the Secret Service and did not possess college degrees as the ones in the highly qualified list did. Education was a major factor as most all of the applicants possessed commensurate work experience. In this particular case, cronyism and favoritism prevailed over those that were much more qualified.

Will somebody with influence, care or concern please let the DHS-OIG know about these blatent violations of OPM federal promotion/hiring regulations. At the very least, the government ethics office should investigate these managers as they have shown wanton disregard toward their responsibility to act in the best interest of the federal government in a fair and impartial manner.

Who is Brown trying to hoodwink? definetly not the actual fklying FAMs. the so called review boards are made up of the same luminaries that have caused all the stupid issues in the first palce. And those FAMS seating on those boards are hand picked "yes men" who are more interested in getting in bed managemnet than actually looking out for hteir fellow FAMS.

The working FAMs as they put it, Are mostly Office FAMs. Those Working in training or operations, they seldom fly (except on special missions they pick) Our office sent one of the bosses favoites. His sum total of professional law eforcement experiance was working in and supervising a commissary in our federal prison system. He has flown less than 6 months total in his whole FAM life!!

Can't take a sick day without writing a memorandum, can't plan on a vacation without finding someone to fly in your place, can't take off to be with your child during surgery, can't take off for a friend's funeral, can't make a human mistake without being crucified, welcome to the CHICAGO FAMS office.. a living nightmare.

I have already lost all faith in the ability of the government to bring some common sense to this agency.

I am leaving the government for a private sector job after a total of seventeen years invested towards a pension. I just cannot stand the corruption any longer. This agency and the SS cronies incompetance has me wanting to forget I was ever a G employee. This is shameful how the managers here have disrespected the memories of the victims of 9/11.

Attention FBI,,, Please investigate FAMS Director Dana Brown. Include his perjury, contract fraud, collusion, and malfeasance in the current investigation of the former FAMS Director Thomas Quinn. I look forward to seeing them both in Federal Prison in the months to come. Thank you.

Who is performing this so-called sweeping review?

Could it possibly be the 14 so-called FAM focus groups?

How many actual "flying FAMs" are in the focus groups?

The management continues to release information that is misleading to both Congress and the public.

They claim that "working air marshals" are in the 14 working groups. They cannot use the phrase "flying fam" because the so-called working air marshal could be someone "working" in training or operations. (therefore, not flying on a regular basis).
Since "flying fams" represent over 90% of the FAM service, it may be useful to get some input/representation from the people who actually fly missions on a routine basis.

Regarding the so-called schedule change. This could have been done years ago. It is a no-brainer. Getting in at midnight on your Friday and then having a 5 am report time on Monday is completely uncalled for.
The real story is that they left so-many loopholes in their plan (which doesn't take effect for several months) that there is little to no chance it will be enforced.

It will go something like this;

Flying fam to superviser: "Hey I thought I wasn't suppose to get in at 11:58pm on my Friday anymore."
Superviser to flying fam: "Well thats coming down from headquarters. It must be a "critical" flight. There's nothing I can do."

Critical in fam manager talk means that it is a 9hour 50 min plus day on a "filler" flight based on no intelligence.

In normal human speak "critical" would mean a flight scheduled based on actual intelligence regarding terrorism.

NMS (Non mission status) this is a good example of how management has created new "terminology" to mislead Congress and the public.

You see, on our schedules, there is a section that calculates our total hours in the air. NMS days are calculated at zero.

If a member of Congress were to look at the total flight hours management could point out that number.
However, that number is inaccurate since flying fams are actually flying missions on "non-mission" status days.

The terminology was created for the sole purpose of misleading any outside entity(including Congress) the excessive hours the flying fams are being tasked.

That was managements answer to the fact that "flying fams" work excessively long hours

Last question. How many participants in the entire 14 working groups are affected by the new "schedule changes"?

I rest my case!

I spoke of the deception that FAM SS retired management is perpetrating through "terminology"

This cuts to the heart of what is currently transpiring right in the faces of the flying fams.

The biggest question should be,
who is going to take the place of all of the seasoned federal law enforcement officers who are leaving the FAM service. Where will the FAMs get "officers" to take their places?

Nobody from any other federal law enforcement agencies want to be flying fams. In FAM hub cities, flying FAMS are actually taking jobs with local police departments. Who are now informed and aware of the disarray of the FAM service.

So where, one might ask are the "officers" going to come from?

Why does Management continue to have a "if you don't like it leave" attitude?

Since there are no "officers" willing to join the FAM service, the FAM management in conjunction with other TSA upper management have decided to create "officers" in name only. They are called TSO's (transportation security officers)formerly known as baggage screeners.

Thats right, according to the TSA and the upper management of FAMs
Baggage screeners are now classified as "officers" (in their world)
(This is to cover up the fact the actual officers across the USA want nothing to do with the FAM program)

I am not in any way trying to demean the baggage screeners. Many good people who have had to deal with mismanagement as well. And I don't fault the people who are actually out there doing their job.
....But they are not law enforcement officers and Congress needs to understand that changing a terminology (title)does not make someone qualified to stop a hijacking at 30,000 ft.

This is the most dangerous of the "terminology" changes yet.

That is upper managements plan. As seasoned/experienced law enforcement officers leave, replace with baggage screeners under the title TSO(transportation security officer) so that Congress doesn't realize it is not a one for one swap.

They will probably change the title of Federal Air Marshal to TSO as well in order to make their plan more "seamless"

Hey, I wouldn't put it past them!

This is the type of modus operundi that exists within the FAMs. Fix the problem by attaching a misleading title:
recap;;;

NMS= cover up excessive flight hours to show fams on paper as flying less

TSO= baggage screener renamed "officer" to replace law enforcement to cover up recruitment problems

"FAM" focus group= Attach the word "fam" to "focus group" to cover up that there are no "flying fams" participating.

We've been told by management in Chicago that the FAMS doesn't follow Office of Personnel Management policies but they won't tell us what policies they do follow. They don't follow FMLA, HIPPA or EEO laws so what laws do they follow. They don't serve the American public they just serve themselves. Incredible.