Ask me about being a Federal Air Marshal

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about being a Federal Air Marshal

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

What background did you come from? Was it law enforcement or similar, or was this kind of jumping right into that kind of thing for you? Do you have any interesting stories about things you had to intervene in (that won't compromise classified stuff or anything, obviously)? Do the pilots/crew know you're on the plane or who you are if they know a marshal is aboard? Sorry if that's a policy thing you can't answer, I was just kind of curious as to whether they know you're there or if they're all "what the gently caress" if something goes down and suddenly there's a guy there getting poo poo under control.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 04:25

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 03:38

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

photomikey posted:

How do you not gain a thousand pounds by sitting all day and eating in airports a lot?

Additionally, how do you stand the boredom? I assume on most flights nothing happens that needs a marshal's intervention, but you still have to be alert and aware. That seems like it would just be painfully dull.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 05:23

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

What are the other issues that made you want to leave that you mentioned?

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 16:03

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Are most/all people former law enforcement or do like, pilots ever shift into that since they're already in the industry?

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 16:19

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

I didn't realize I'd have so many questions or be so curious about air marshals so thank you for making this thread, by the way. It's always fun when A/T gets me curious about something I haven't thought about.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 16:55

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Dr.Caligari posted:

How did things go in the countries flown to? I would imagine if you are flying out of somewhere like Turkey, you want as few as possible airport personnel knowing who you are and why you are skipping security. Was this an issue, or any other issues with foreign airports?

Huh, I didn't even think of this. There must be something to go through customs or whatever. Is there a law-enforcement equivalent of a diplomatic passport?

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 18:50

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Jiro Kage posted:

I have heard stories about pilots that have thrown FAMs off of planes

Why would they even do this? :stare:

Unless the FAM got like, drunk or something, which seems in turn like it wouldn't warrant a fine since it'd be more an "incapable of doing their job, also being a drunk rear end in a top hat on a plane" situation and not the airline just randomly throwing someone off.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2015 18:43

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Jiro Kage posted:

Well, I don't really know. Some of them might just not liked the idea of FAMs on planes. Some of them might have had a personality conflict with the team leader. I think the times I have heard it happen was because the pilots felt that it was a bit of their command of the plane being usurped. While technically we are under the control of the PIC, when it comes to something happening on the plane, I can guarantee you that he will be told well after the fact.

This honestly doesn't surprise me. My dad was a pilot for America West/whatever it got bought by (American?) for 20-30 years and a lot of the commercial pilots I met through him had pretty astonishingly large egos. But it's still kind of surprising on the level that, if I were a pilot, I'd probably be cool with the idea of being safer and less likely to have to deal personally with a whackjob/hijacker/etc.

Huh. Interesting. Thank you for your responses!

# ¿ Oct 17, 2015 20:29

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Jiro Kage posted:

Not with the current administration being absolutely terrified of FAMS doing any work. There had been rumors of 1811 qualifications for years, but they never surfaced and I am doubtful it will happen. It is a fantastic waste of resources that could be utilized for the good of all that the agency does not want to use.

Why this this the case, do you think? Just general incompetence on some level or is there some given reason or what?

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 03:10

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Jiro Kage posted:

I'm not ignoring this, I just need to think about it carefully and how to phrase things so it doesn't seem like bitching, and doesn't broach any subjects I can't talk about. I'll get to it in another post soon.

No worries, I was kind of figuring you might not answer since it was a tricky question and I knew that even as I wrote it!

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 05:09

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

MrYenko posted:

I would be completely ok with abolishing the TSA, and giving the Air Marshal program the entirety of their budget.

I worked at MIA for a couple years, mostly on the cargo side of the airport, and got to see limited parts of the backside of TSA. What a complete loving joke.

It says a lot that literally everyone I know personally who's had to work with them has said this. My dad and his friends (pilots and other airline people), airport workers, everyone. Including people who worked for the TSA.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 17:10

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

MrYenko posted:

The screener really didn't appreciate my "It can also be used as a flashlight" comment.

Don't you try using your fancy logic, terrorist.

Jiro Kage, this is another really broad question, I know: At this point, given the incompetency you've described or alluded to at all levels of the FAM/TSA/keep airplanes safe department, do you think there's any plausible hope of fixing how things work and making them more effective without just starting from scratch, or is that kind of a lost cause, this is the best we're gonna get situation? I realize that depends on a lot of things, I'm just curious about your personal opinion.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 19:41

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Malcolm posted:

How does the TSA and the US screening system compare to other nations like, say, Israel? I haven't read too much on the subject but my impression is that Israeli security relies more on plainclothes officers, human intelligence, and probably a healthy dose of racial profiling. On the other hand they have an excellent security record (so far). It does seem like the TSA approach of high-tech gadgets and low-skill people is designed to line the pockets of the security and defense industry, and put on an elaborate security theater to keep passengers paranoid and constantly mindful of a potential threat. At best it is a deterrent but with a 95% failure rate to find weapons, the TSA does not inspire a great deal of confidence in me that they could defeat a determined group of attackers on multiple planes.

I would imagine, offhand, that this has a lot to do with size of the country, population, number of airports/flights and the number of people traveling in and out at any point. According to Wikipedia, in 2014, Ben-Gurion airport had just under 15 million passengers total move through it, while JFK in New York had about 53 million.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 20:11

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Does FAM authority (or however that would be worded) start as soon as they're on the plane, or is it a "plane must be moving" deal or... actually, what authority does a FAM have? Same as an on-duty cop in being able to arrest or anything like that?

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 07:30

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

JohnGalt posted:

Have you had to shoot a gun inside of a fuselage? How much blood loss do you experience through your ears?

It does seem like it would just destroy peoples' hearing, based on what (little) I know of guns and how even suppressors seem to be more about reducing the god-awful noise than silencing it. Though I suppose if you're in a position where you're firing your weapon, the alternative is probably worse.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2015 00:05

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

I'd read about how incredibly wrong things would have to go for a gunshot to like, bring down a plane. I hadn't considered the noise of it before though.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2015 16:33

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

Jiro Kage posted:

The TSA was our administrative and funding controllers and parent agency, with DHS above that. Aside from that, the Air Marshals aren't really the TSA, and in fact, used to be part of ICE. It's still too much. I'd be surprised to find people having problems with FAMs like they do with the TSA members.

But hey man if you want to say we are part of the problem with the TSA, have at it.

I think most people probably don't realize that FAM falls under the TSA umbrella, I didn't before this post. I'd always sort of assumed that they were Homeland Security or DOJ, it made sense to me logically and I had no idea till you mentioned it.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2015 17:58

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 03:38

Tendai: Mar 16, 2007; "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."; Grimey Drawer

IndianaZoidberg posted:

Do you typically fly Couch or do you get to fly in First Class with the big, comfy seats at least every once in awhile? Is there a rough split between Couch and First Class? 10/90?

This makes me wonder what the ratio of people being assholes on planes is like between first and coach, now that I think about it. On the one hand, coach has more people, but on the other hand, first class has free/reduced price alcohol which seems to be what makes most people act like fuckasses on airplanes (like the dude who leaped up and poo poo on the food cart some years back)

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 14:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about being a Federal Air Marshal