Custom essays on History of the Air Marshal Program

The creation of the Air Marshal Service was an important step in the development of the US aviation industry which aimed at the prevention of numerous risks and threats US citizens could be exposed to in the course of air flights. At the same time, the creation of the Air Marshal Service was not a spontaneous decision of the US authority. Instead, it was a logical decision that was taken on the ground of the objective analysis of the development of the aviation industry. In fact, the Air Marshal Program marked the new stage of the development of the US aviation industry oriented on the flight safety and security of the US citizens in the course of the flights. The Air Marshal Service changed and evolved in the course of time but its strategic goals remained unchangeable and, today, the Air Marshal Service aims at the provisions of passengers with the high level of security and minimization of risks associated with potential threats that can emerge in the course of flights both domestically and internationally.
At first, the Air Marshal Service was created to secure flights within the territory of the US. The Air Marshal Service was created by J. F. Kennedy in response to growing threats the US citizens could have faced in the course of flights. While introducing the Air Marshal Service, the President of the US J.F. Kennedy said:
Now, let me say that we are – have ordered today on a number of our planes a Border Patrol man who will ride on a number of our flights. We are also going to insist that every airplane lock its door, and that the door be strong enough to prevent entrance by force, and that possession of the key be held by those inside the cabin so that pressure cannot be put on the members of the crew outside to have the door opened. (Grabell, 2008)
In such a way, by means of the introduction of the Air Marshal Service, the US authorities attempted to increase the safety of flights on the territory of the US. In fact, in the early 1960s, the aforementioned measures defined by the President in terms of the creation of the Air Marshal Service were quite simple. The first measures of security were basics compared to the contemporary ones but, at that time, it was a considerable breakthrough in the development of effective system of air flights security and passengers’ safety.
At this point, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the Air Marshal Service was introduced in response to growing threats the US citizens faced in the course of flights. In this respect, it is worth mentioning the fact that the safety of flights has decreased considerably by the early 1960s. The air planes became subjects to terrorist attacks and they could not be as safe as they used to be at the dawn of the development of aviation industry in the US. The introduction of the Air Marshal Service has proved to be a very important and essential step. In the late 1960s – early 1970s, from 1968 to 1972 about 75 US air planes were hijacked by Cubans, who attempted to flee from Cuba or return to Cuba after exile (Grabell, 2008). In such a way, the creation of the Air Marshal Service was a preventive measure, which, though, did not work effectively because the Air Marshal Service failed to prevent hijacking of the US air planes in the aforementioned period. The threat of threat of hijacking of the US air planes became a new challenge to the Air Marshal Service, which proved to be unable to cope with this challenge.
Nevertheless, in response to numerous cases of hijacking in the late 1960s, the US authorities expanded the Air Marshal Program with 1,784 agents (Grabell, 2008). At the same time, it was obvious that the rise of the number of agents could not solve the problem of hijacking pointblank. In spite of the rise of the number of agents, the threat of hijacking persisted and the Air Marshal Service had to introduce new security measure to enhance the security of flights and to minimize the risk of hijacking. To meet this goal, the Air Marshal Service was taken over by Federal Aviation Administration that increased the significance of the service, its rights and duties. In addition, the X-Ray screening was introduced in the US airports (Grabell, 2008). The X-Ray screening helped consistently to reduce the risk of hijacking and terrorist attacks at that time and by the mid-1970s the air flights were considered to be relatively secure. At any rate, after 1972, cases of hijacking became quite rare.
However, a relatively calm decade of air flights in the US ended up with a new, notorious attack on a US air plane, TWA Flight 847 from Athens. Hezbollah hijacked the air plane held the passengers hostage for 17 days (Grabell, 2008). This was a turning point in the history of the development of the Air Marshal Program because after this tragic event the program was expanded on international flights. The President of the US, Ronald Reagan, signed a bill to add air marshals on international flights increasing their number on international flights up to 400 (Grabell, 2008). The expansion of the Air Marshal Program on international flights contributed to the rise of the security level of international flights and the US citizens could feel relatively secure due to the presence of air marshals, who were trained specifically to prevent threats which the US passengers could face in the course of the flight.
Another strike that revealed the vulnerability of the Air Marshal Service occurred on 9/11, 2001. The terrorist attacks proved the inability of the existing Air Marshal Service to prevent terrorist attacks and to secure the US citizens in the course of the flight. In response to the terror attacks on 9/11, the US authorities introduced substantial changes in regard to the Air Marshal Service. Remarkably, there were only 33 air marshals on 9/1, none of whom flied domestically (Grabell, 2008). After 9/11 over 4,000 new marshals were hired to increase the security of the US citizens in airports and in the course of flights (Grabell, 2008). Moreover, restructuring of the management of the Air Marshal Service occurred for the Transportation Security Administration was created to manage the Air Marshal Service and to increase the security and safety of flights both domestically and internationally. The aforementioned changes and the introduction of stricter rules of control in the airports, such as limitations concerning luggage that could be carried by passengers to air planes, for instance the ban of carrying liquids on board, led to the consistent improvement of the quality of work of air marshals.
On the other hand, the enforced security often led to cases of detaining of passengers, whom air marshals considered to be suspects, as was the case of a Florida doctor of Indian origin detained by air marshals because of his appearance (Grabell, 2008). Nevertheless, the enforced security measures proved to be essential because attempts of terrorist attacks carried on:
after the attempted Christmas bombing of Northwest Flight 253, President Obama announced that federal air marshals would ride shotgun on more flights to and from the U.S. Armed, highly trained and unobtrusive, thousands of marshals are currently flying U.S. skies. (Fitzpatrick, 2010).
In such a way, today, the Air Marshal Program is essential, if not to say vitally important for the US air flights and citizens traveling throughout the US and worldwide on air planes. The existing security measures are effective but they cannot always guarantee the 100% security of passengers in the course of the flight. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the Air Marshal Service has increased substantially since the early years of the existence of the program. At the same time, the Air Marshal Service should carry on working on the improvement of its operations and service to increase the security of flights and safety of passengers even more, especially, today, when the threat of terrorist attacks persists.