Federal Air Marshal Service

Air Marshal

Occupation
Names	Air Marshal
Occupation type	Public Safety & Homeland Security
Activity sectors	Commercial aviation
Description
Competencies	Willingness to travel independently and extensively, excellent physical condition, firearm proficiency, leadership, communication and motivational skills
Education required	U.S. citizen under age 37, psychological screening, prior experience in similar field (for example: security or airline travel), intensive training program

The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "The Air Marshal Service is meant to promote confidence in civil aviation by effectively deploying federal air marshals (FAMs) to detect, deter, and defeat hostile acts targeting the United States."

Because of the nature of their occupation, federal air marshals (FAMs) travel often. They must also train to be highly proficient marksmen. Since the 1990s, air marshals are considered to have the highest firearms qualification standards of all United States federal law enforcement agencies. A FAM's job is to blend in with other passengers on board aircraft and rely heavily on their training, including investigative techniques, criminal terrorist behavior recognition, firearms proficiency, aircraft specific tactics, and close quarters self-defense measures to protect the flying public."

Initially, President John F. Kennedy in 1961 ordered that federal law enforcement officers be deployed to act as security officers on certain high-risk flights. The Federal Air Marshal Service began on March 2, 1962 as the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) FAA Peace Officers Program. On this date, the first 18 volunteers from the FAA's Flight Standards Division graduated training. They received training from the U.S. Border Patrol at Port Isabel, TX. They later went through recurrent yearly training in Brownsville, Texas. These initial FAA Peace Officers were named by FAA Administrator Najeeb Halaby. Later, it became an integral part of the Civil Aviation Security Division of the FAA. As early as 1963, after an article in FAA Horizons Magazine, the FAA Peace Officers were referred to as Sky Marshals internally within the FAA, although the term would not be used by the media for nearly a decade. Many years after their initial inception, personnel were given firearms and some close quarters combat training at the FBI Academy located on the U.S. Marine Corps training grounds at Quantico, VA.