I for one am perfectly happy to have the FAM in place, and I think that it is petty and assinine to begrudge them their seats. I fly 200 or so legs a year, and I am happy to have FAM in the air and armed.

I come from israel, and have known many israeli air marshalls, and I am a strong believer in the system.


what the US needs, though, is another element of the israeli system - people who watch out for suspicous individuals in the airports. in israel there is agroup of people, mostly young vetrans, mostly college students, who have very good instincts, who are on the lookout for suspicious individuals. in america it would be impossible to fill this posiiton with college kids, but you could get retired cops and school teachers to do this - give them some training and have them wonder around airports looking for people who apeared suspicious, and bring them to the attention of the authorities.


the danger isn't over yet, it is far from over. we should remember that.