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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. In the 1990s, air marshals were considered to have the highest firearms qualification standards of all United States federal law enforcement agencies. Although this is no longer true and has not been the case since prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, according to the TSA, "They rank among those Federal law enforcement officers that hold the highest standard for handgun accuracy.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Federal Air Marshals )〕 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."〔 ==History== 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.〔Price, Jeffery C.,and Forrest, Jeffery S., ''Practical Aviation Security'' (Burlington, M.A.: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009), 138〕 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 US Marine Corps training grounds at Quantico, VA. In October 1969, due to the increasing violence of hijacked aircraft in the Middle East, the U.S. Marshals Service started a ''Sky Marshal Division'' out of the Miami Field Office. The program was run by John Brophy and staffed with a handful of deputies. Since the majority of hijackings were occurring out of Florida in the late 1960s', the U.S. Marshals Service started their program to try and combat air piracy given their broad jurisdiction.〔(The United States Federal Air Marshal Service: A Historical Perspective, 1962 - 2012: "Fifty Years of Service": Clay W. Biles: 9780615826523: Amazon.com: Books )〕 The "Sky Marshal Program" of the 1970s' later became a joint effort between the U.S. Customs Service (now U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)) and the FAA and would be led by General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., a former Tuskegee Airman. On September 11, 1970, in response to increasing acts of air piracy by Islamic radicals, President Richard Nixon ordered the immediate deployment of armed federal agents on United States commercial aircraft. Initially, the deployed personnel were federal agents from the U.S. Department of Treasury. Subsequently, the United States Customs Service formed the Division of Air Security, and established the position of Customs Security Officer (CSO). Approximately 1,700 personnel were hired for this position and were trained at the Treasury Air Security Officer (TASOS) training complex at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Customs security officers were deployed on U.S. flagged commercial aircraft, flying on both domestic and international routes in an undercover capacity in teams of two and three. Customs security officers also handled ground security screening on selected flights at domestic U.S. airports. Following the mandatory passenger screening enacted by the FAA at U.S. airports beginning in 1973, the customs security officer force was disbanded and its personnel were absorbed within the U.S. Customs Service. By 1974 armed sky marshals were a rarity on U.S. aircraft and the former customs security officers had been reassigned as customs patrol officers, customs inspectors, and customs special agents. A small force of Federal Air Marshals were retained at the FAA starting in 1974, however, the number of personnel trained under this program was limited to between 10-12 persons. For the next several years following the customs security officer disbandment, the FAA air marshals rarely flew missions. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan requested the expansion of the program and Congress enacted the International Security and Development Cooperation Act, which expanded the statutes that supported the Federal Air Marshal Service. Contrary to the impression given in the TSA "Our Mission" statement, the FAM program was begun in response to domestic hijackings and FAM operational flights were almost exclusively conducted on domestic US flights until 1985. After the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 and the enactment of the International Security and Development Cooperation Act, the number of FAMs was increased and their focus became international U.S. air carrier operations. Due to resistance of several countries e.g., the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany to having individuals carrying firearms entering their countries the coverage of international flight operations was initially spotty. As resistance to the entrance of armed personnel to their countries was overcome through bilateral negotiations and agreements reached as to the terms and handling of the weapons when they were brought in country, the FAMs were able to operate worldwide in carrying out their mission to protect US aviation from hijackings. Air marshals were originally designated as U.S. Customs security officers assigned by order of President Kennedy on an as-needed basis, and later were specially trained FAA personnel.〔()〕 Also contrary to the impression from the TSA "Our Mission" statement, the customs officers were phased out in 1974.〔 Many of them transferred to the FAA's Civil Aviation Security Division to serve as aviation security inspectors and also in the volunteer FAM program directed by the FAA's Civil Aviation Security Division (later renamed the ''Office of Civil Aviation Security''). This program later became a non-voluntary one, required of all FAA Inspectors, breeding other problems within the FAA's Office of Civil Aviation Security. Later, in 1992, Retired Major General Orlo Steele, then the Associate Administrator for Civil Aviation Security hired Greg McLaughlin as the Director of the Federal Air Marshal Program. Greg McLaughlin had been hired as an air marshal after the hijacking of TWA 847 and was working in Frankfurt, Germany, investigating the bombing of Pan Am 103. Greg McLaughlin turned the Federal Air Marshal Program into an all voluntary program. The voluntary nature of the program and efforts by McLaughlin and Steele turned the small force of Federal Air Marshals into an extremely capable one. From 1992 to just after the attacks on 9/11, the air marshals had one of the toughest firearms qualification standards in the world. A study from the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) later came out with a classified report during this time period, placing Federal Air Marshals amongst the top 1% of all combat shooters in the world; this is no longer the case due to changes in capabilities and training.〔 Before the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Federal Air Marshal Service consisted of varying numbers of FAMs dependent on government funding. Although 50 positions were authorized by Congress, only 33 FAMs were active on 09/11/01. As a result of the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush ordered the rapid expansion of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Many new hires were agents from other federal agencies, such as the United States Border Patrol, the DEA, NPS, FBI, ATF, CBP, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General (OIG), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), IRS CID, and many others.〔()〕 Immediately after the attacks on 9/11, then Director Greg McLaughlin, was tasked with hiring and training 600 air marshals in a one-month period, an impressive feat that has since not been repeated in any government agency. A classified number of applicants were later hired, trained, and deployed on flights around the world. As of August 2013, this number is estimated to be approximately 4,000.〔 〕 Currently, these FAMs serve as the primary law enforcement entity within the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). On October 16, 2005, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff officially approved the transfer of the Federal Air Marshal Service from U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to TSA as part of a broader departmental reorganization to align functions consistent with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "Second Stage Review" findings for the following: #consolidating and strengthening aviation law enforcement and security at the Federal level; #creating a common approach to stakeholder outreach; and #improving the coordination and efficiency of aviation security operations. As part of this realignment, the director of the Federal Air Marshal Service also became the assistant administrator for the TSA Office of Law Enforcement (OLE), which houses nearly all TSA law enforcement services. In March 2014, Director Robert Bray announced six of the service's twenty-six offices would be closed by the end of 2016. Bray attributed the cuts to a reduction of operating budget from $966 million to $805 million and the Transportation Security Administration stated no positions would be eliminated.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Federal Air Marshal Service」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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