WEBVTT - FAMS 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.119 The Federal Air Marshal Service was created during the nineties 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.160 sixties after a series of hijackings in the Middle East 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.400 and problems in Cuba. On the morning of nine eleven, 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.040 there were thirty three air marshals who worked within the 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.439 Federal Aviation Administration. Following nine eleven, thousands of air marshals 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.200 would be hired under the Transportation Security Administration to make 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.240 up one of the largest law enforcement agencies in America. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.239 Working at thirty five thousand feet in the air, they 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.200 were having some problems, medical problems, up and down three 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.320 or four times a day, just like the flight of 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.879 tennis and the pots, and it's not really healthy for you. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.159 This is nine eleven. Two decades later, I'm Steve Gregory 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:52.479 in Los Angeles. The Federal Air Marshal Service or FAMS, 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.800 got a big boost following nine eleven. There was funding available. 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.760 There was a scramble to hire qualified agents and open 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.960 up field offices around the country. Frank John Sandy was 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.120 brought on board right after nine eleven to run the 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.520 field office in Los Angeles. He was the special Agent 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:08.880 in charge. So where were you on nine eleven? So 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.920 I was on the UH. I was assistant Special Agent 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.600 charge on the former President for detail in Beaver Creek, Colorado, 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.880 and uh, we're we always had a TV on for 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.760 for intel and news in the command post, and it 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:24.760 came on early in the morning, and that's that's when 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.520 we saw it. So we immediately it was pretty shocking 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.319 for everybody. We watched it several times before we realized 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.280 this was really happening and it was an attack as 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.880 opposed to an accident, right, because initially that's what we 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.720 thought it was. We I mean, you know, President Ford 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.080 was in his eighties and his mid eighties by then, 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.480 he was no longer really a threat to anybody. His 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.040 what he knew and all. But they have Secret Service 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.920 protection until the day they die, the President of first Lady. 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.320 And we thought, gee, this this will be a possibility 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.280 maybe for some terrorists to kidnap former presidents. That was 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.680 on my mind. So of course we we swung an 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.720 act and we put a we He lived in a 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:04.440 cul de sact, so we blocked the cul de sac 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.880 with vehicles, and he lived in a private community, so 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.079 of course we notified the security of the community and 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.640 the local security and Eagle Veil said, if he's anything suspicious, 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:18.320 any individual suspicious, anybody looking for President Ford or any 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.280 asking any questions like that, we need to know right away. 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.320 And of course we brought some long rifles out on post, 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.880 so we kind of beefed up the weapons that we had. 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.040 So what was the jump for you from doing the 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.960 detail for President Ford to Air Marshal Well, I had 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:39.120 my twenty years on and that's the minimum amount to retire, 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.400 and I was thinking about retirement as a Secret Service, 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.720 as a Secret Service agent, and uh, it just happened 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.079 to be that Tom Quinn, who was who I knew 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:49.959 from the Secret Service. He was fairly high up in 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:52.800 the organization. He was going to be the first director 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.079 to Federal Air Marshal Service, and he had called some 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.840 of us that he knew. Yeah, so he he said, look, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.240 we're gonna we're gonna open up offices all over the country. 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.160 We're looking for people. Of course, it are well equipped 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.400 to handle security. I mean that's what we've done security. 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.320 We do criminal investigations too, but half of half our 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.880 job is protection. So it made sense. So he took 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.120 he took a lot of the senior agents. I was 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.920 one of them, and we were sent out to these 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:24.079 different air marshall post. I took l A because it 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.359 was the closest one to UH where Ford lived. He 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.000 was in Colorado at the time, but his main home 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.840 was in Palm Springs. So I said, just send me 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.280 to the closest place. He said, well, it's actually not 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.080 in l A. It's a It's at the Altra Marine 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.440 Corps air station. And I had the thing for a second, 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:43.960 and I remember leaving there in nineteen seventy two. It 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.120 was my last station after I come back from Vietnam. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.760 And I remember leaving there in UH September seventy two, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.720 and as I'm leaving the gate, leaving the Marine Corps 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.160 after four years, remember turning around looking at gate and 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.680 I said, I'll never see this again. Twenty five years later, 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:01.040 here I am going back in the air as an 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.560 air marshal. I would have never guessed that. How quickly 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.920 after nine eleven did this ramped up air marshall service happened? 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:08.720 They were, They were ramped up in a couple of months. 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.800 They had. They hired a Savene agency to hire air marshals. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.200 We had to through a lot of interviews to hire 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.360 how many we needed to hire. It was thousands. The 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.600 numbers confidential how many we hired, but you had to 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.040 interview thousands and thousands of people. So this AGEC came 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.440 in and started doing those interviews. Meanwhile, headquarters are starting 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.880 to ramp up, starting to come up with their divisions, 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.640 and they were starting to plan what's going to happen 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:38.080 when these air marshals are go through the academy. Was 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:40.600 I think it might have been ten weeks or something 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.559 like that, depends on your background. Somewhere longer, somewhere shorter. 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.200 After while, everybody went through the full academy, but the 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.800 beginning we wanted to get people in those seats. It 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.720 was paramounts. So actually before El Toro we were it 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.840 wasn't me. I wasn't there yet. But those thirty three 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.240 air Marshals two were sent to each field office to 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.560 start things going. Initially during the only ones that had 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.240 any experienced with with all that. So they were working 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.640 out of hotel room to hotel rooms, and the air 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.200 Marshans would come in, they pick up their schedule for 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.680 two weeks, their flight schedule, and off they would go. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:13.920 When they were done to two weeks schedule, they would 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.080 come back pick up another schedule for two weeks. So 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.200 when you went through the training, had you talked to 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.200 anyone on how how different it was? I mean, what 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.480 were the new things you had to look out for? 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.000 Now you had thig tanks going all over the country 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.160 and people sat down and they had a chance to 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.800 see what happened, how was how was the nine eleven 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.720 hijackings pulled off? And so what they did was they 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.960 came up with all these ideas. Number one is you 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:37.760 want to prevent that from happening again. Of course, then 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.480 you want to go beyond that. So the hardened cockpit 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:42.640 door was one of them. Of course, it took months 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.320 and months and maybe even years to get some of 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.640 this stuff done for all the aircraft, especially the doors. Meanwhile, 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:50.800 what the flight attendants were doing until they could get 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.239 that completed, The flight attendants were moving their drink cards 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:56.160 when the when the party had to come out to 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.760 go to bathroom. On certain you know air flights, they 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.200 didn't have them a pick bathroom. They would come out 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.960 with the flight attendants. If they didn't have some of 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:06.440 those planes they had these metal screens that could come down. 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.080 But the ones that didn't have that, they would push 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:13.560 the cart in between the passengers and the cockpit and laboratory, 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:15.680 so at least someone who have to jump over and 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.880 a flight attendant would stand would stand there. And that's 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.000 that's what they had at the time. How many flights 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.560 did you go on as an air marshal I started 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.159 as the air I started the air marshal in charge. 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.920 I took about twelve flights just to see what it 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.440 was like. I took out European trip, I took an 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.200 Asian trip, and I took some domestic trips just to 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:38.800 get a feel for his like to sit in that 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.920 seat and and observe what they were supposed to observe 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.400 and see the reaction of the the flight crew, the 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.080 pilot because some of these, you know, you go to 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.680 foreign countries, you're met by customs in these foreign countries 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.480 or by other law enforcement. We're trying to smooth it 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.760 out the whole process. Meanwhile, we had foreign air marshals 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.680 coming into our country and we would assist them in 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:06.320 coming through our customs and things like that, hotel rooms 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.600 and and things like. They're coming to a country in 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.080 a city they've never been to before, so we would 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.440 smooth and things out for them. And they assist us 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.560 on the other end. So I guess I never really 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.320 thought about that our countries having their own air marshals. Yeah, 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.560 of course, and we some countries couldn't afford it, and 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:22.800 we told them that we would be their air marshals. 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.560 That never came to fruition, but we've had. We had 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:30.320 the Japanese, the Germans, the Canadians, the Mexicans, French, all 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.600 the major countries that have airlines. Uh, they would come 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.320 into our country, you know, on on their on their 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:38.800 flagged airlines, and we only went on our flag airlines, 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.120 United American Delta, all of them. So that's kind of 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.440 how we went. And we sat in discussions with them. 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.000 Everybody has their own idea kind of weapons you're gonna use, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.000 whether you use weapons, you don't use weapons, with kind 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.240 of tactics, where your CD is going to be. We 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.320 sat with a lot of these other agencies, different countries, 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.600 and we pulled our thoughts together and that's what we did. 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:04.400 It was truly global effort. Oh yeah, absolutely, And and 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.400 even I even worked at the airport for a while, 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.640 and we also went out to other airports, not the 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.040 air marshals, but the fsd S and t s A 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.800 went out to other airports that didn't have the the 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.560 wherewithal the United States has, and we help with their 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.480 security at the airport because if they're going to be 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.200 the one screening our passengers were coming into New York 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.000 and all, we want to make sure they're doing it properly. 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:27.200 December twenty nine, two thousand three, Homeland Security Secretary Tom 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.280 Ridge talks about the first time the newly created Color 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.439 Threat System changed colors and how the air marshals would help. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.960 Just over a week ago, the United States government raised 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.760 the national threat level from an elevated to a high 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.679 risk of terrorist attack and as we know, we're commonly 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:49.200 known referred to us from code yellow to code orange. First, 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.160 let me say that Homeland Security officials at all levels 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.640 of government, federal, state, and local, continue to work around 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:02.319 the clock to protect our country. We know we know 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:06.839 from experience that the increased security we implement when we 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:11.680 raise the threat level, along with the increased vigilance that occurs, 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:17.400 can help disrupt or deter terrorist attacks, and it continues 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.880 to be the case. I wish that all Americans could 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.319 have the benefit of seeing firsthand what I have the 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.880 opportunity to see, and that is the scope of the 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:34.480 response undertaken by all segments of law enforcement, public safety, 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:39.240 and government at all levels, as they have quickly and 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:45.199 effectively ramped up comprehensive protective measures around the entire country. 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.000 It is because of their good efforts that we are 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:54.719 without doubt better prepared to deter or to respond to 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:59.120 a terrorist threat than ever before. Now, with all the 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.959 recent talk okay about air travel, it is understandable that 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:09.439 some still question the safety of flying. Let me reassure 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.680 you that in the two and a half years since 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.920 September eleven, our aviation system has risen to new heights 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:22.000 of security and will continue to take additional steps to 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:27.319 increase protection. Today, I am announcing the Department of Homeland 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:33.200 Security has issued aviation emergency amendments to further enhance security 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:39.040 relating to both passenger and cargo aircraft flying too flying 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:44.640 from and over the United States. Specifically, we have requested 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:51.959 that international air carriers, where necessary, place trained armed government 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:57.720 law enforcement officers on designated flights as an added protective measure. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:02.960 These directives, of effective immediately are part of our ongoing 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:07.320 effort to make air travel safe for Americans and visitors alike. 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.959 All Americans should know now that we are at a 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:18.640 Code orange state of alert. Additional meaningful security measures have 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.760 been put in place all across the country. I've been 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.720 talking with retired Federal Air Marshal Frank don Zanti, who 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.040 was the Special Agent in charge for the Los Angeles 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.079 Field Office. Wasn't there an issue about the fact that 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.000 you look like air marshals and that you look like 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.800 cops or agents, and that you had to start really 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.400 working on blending in more. That's true, and it was 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.840 for a lot of reasons. One is, we hired people young, 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.280 young people, mostly physically fit, so they kind of stood 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.160 out as a typical businessman. We tried to we wore 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:54.280 suits some flights, like you got flights from Washington, d C. 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.199 To New York, or some flights from l A to 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.280 San Francisco. Businessmen would dress up in suits. Times they 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:01.800 would take their tie off, but they'd have suit on. 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:03.880 They fly up, go to a meeting, and fly back 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.240 there in suits. So we tried to put air marshals 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.319 in suits on those flights. We had flights in l 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.840 A A lot. A lot of my flights went to Hawaii. 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.679 We had ha wine shirts on. So we tried to 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.360 blend in, but you had fairly young guys and girls 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.199 physically fit looking around instead of reading books and on. 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:23.760 We tell them, okay, you can read a book, but 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:25.400 don't get too involved in a book. You can read, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:27.959 you can watch a movie, don't get too involved in 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:32.040 a movie. And because your job is to be circumspect 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.520 and see what's going on, So what people would do 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:36.240 is they would look at people that were that were 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.400 looking at them. And so you know, we we learned 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:42.240 over time how to blend in, and it took and 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.160 it took a while. As the program itself has it stayed. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.560 This robust isn't a federal air marshal program, but it's 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.400 part of the t S A right, right, you know, 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.040 we we left t s A for a while and 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.839 went went to Customs. But because we wanted to be 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.040 an air marshal being for tection all the time for 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.200 twenty years, that's tough to do to be an airplane 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:04.599 up and down. So we're trying to think of a 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:06.880 way to get him involved in something else, like the 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.880 Secret Service. We did fifty percent protection, fifty percent investigations. 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.560 So we thought if we if we got involving customs. 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.199 They could do maybe six months or a year or 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.440 two years of flying, then a couple of years doing investigations. Well, 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.040 we never were quite accepted by customs. They didn't want 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.080 people coming in for two years of leaving for two years, 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.439 so it never quite panned out that way. So, you know, 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.199 we did some other things. We got them involved in 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.960 airport security. So we had liaison people, which I actually 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.480 did for ten years at Long Beach and john Wyn Airport. Uh. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.360 We're involved with the local police, state police, and airport 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.760 police and we helped them do assessments, security assessments. When 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:45.839 the air marshalls had come through, we would handle them 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:48.360 and and issues like that v I p s would 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.320 come through, would help them through security. So we did 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.120 a lot of a lot of things like that. The 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:56.040 other thing we had people in all fifty Joint Terms 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.840 and Tests Force by the FBI, so we had people 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.719 embedded air marshals and that are doing FBI investigations that 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.839 were related to airline safety and airport safety. So we 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.040 had fifty people doing that and we also had a 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.719 person in headquarters JTTF in Washington, d C. So we 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.280 wrote it did through these positions and I would get 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.960 him off off the airplanes. Of course, they could always 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.320 go to the academy teach the academy. There was administrative 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.920 jobs and headquarters. We had administrative jobs at the l 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.440 a X office, scheduling and things like that. We had 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.240 our own training program so they could do that. So 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:33.400 that went on. We did a sleep study because we 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.840 found out that they were having some problems, medical problems, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.680 up and down three or four times a day, just 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:43.520 like the flighted tendants and the polis, but their job 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.160 was a little different. Unlike flighted tendants, they had to 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.120 sit down most of the time, more like a pilot 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:50.720 and it's not really healthy for you. So and then 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:54.120 they couldn't sleep. He had the six hours sometimes three 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.120 hours change in time. So they did a six month 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:58.800 sleep study and they came up with a way to 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.640 do change scheduling a little bit and do something. So 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.200 I mean it has changed. It's it's gotten a little 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.160 better in that respect, but the training is just as robust. 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.520 If anything, it's it's probably better. We've we've learned things. 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.840 They have a fairly long academy and we have we 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.800 have good quarterly training that we still do every office 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:22.040 has an airplane mock up where you could induce smoke 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.040 into it. You can, you can rock and roll it, 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:25.360 you can, you can get you have a p A 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.800 system and we have airline seats in air and we 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.000 run scenarios and they come in their quarterly and they 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.120 run scenarios with with blank guns, and we run different 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.720 scenarios over and over and over again. So the program 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.200 itself is still very much alive and well from the 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.080 time you started to the time you retired. During your 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:47.240 tenure there, how many risks were averted or how many 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.880 attacks might have been averted, It's hard to say. I 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.240 would say, just just by m your presence, you probably 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.120 have heard a lot of attacks. You know, the rowers, 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.320 they're always going to hit the weakest link, and aviation 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.280 at the time was the weakest link, and no one, 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:00.880 no one had your as your nation. I think that 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.840 could be done like that, so once you know, I 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.200 mean everything that we've been doing, the air marshals and 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.600 the doors you had mentioned, and of course the screening 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:11.080 was a big part of it. All the screen that 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.600 we're doing now at the airports. When the tear US 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.720 knew that we're putting money and effort into that there 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.040 they were kind of sidetracked into something else. I mean, 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:20.760 we always thought it could happen again, but as the 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.040 years went by, they thought their softer targets. And so 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.880 we had the shoe bomber, if you remember, we had 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.920 the underwear bomber, and then we had um We had 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:32.520 some bombs that were going to be placed in the 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.480 in the luggage compartment. So as we harden everything up, 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.480 they just found other places, other venues to go. And 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.480 so as far as the air marsh is actually stopping 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.520 something on board, it's it's almost nil. But it's like 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.240 anything else in security, you never know what you stopped. 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.920 In the Secret Service, we never knew how many assassination 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.600 attempts we stopped. We we know of like one maybe, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.560 and it was Hinckley. Hinckley when he was interviewed by 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:01.520 the Secret Service after his shot Reagan, they said, you know, 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:03.440 they talked him for quite a while and they said, 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.600 did you was he the first president you were an assassinated? 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.960 Says no, I I tried to assassinate Jimmy Carter and 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.520 he goes wine and he goes when and we went 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.760 we reviewed film that the media took at the at 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.040 the sites that he was outdoor sights, and there he was, 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:20.840 he was about five rows back at a speech Jimmy 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:23.359 Carter gave and he had that same far away look 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:25.280 at his face, and he said, I never got close 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.679 enough that I felt I could take a shot at 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:32.040 the Jimmy Carter. And so you just don't know when 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.440 you when you think about that, you really don't know 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.880 what you stopped. We just we found that out after 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.240 he was successful the second time, but he he had tried. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:43.720 It wasn't that only that one time, but as other 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:45.479 times he said he had tried, he just could never 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.680 get close enough. What were some of the biggest challenges 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.920 about making this in an effective program? First of all, 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.760 the infrastructure. I told you we started out the hotel rooms. 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.920 Then we moved to El Toro and we moved into 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:00.080 the tower at El Toro, the aircraft tower there, and 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.879 there was some there was some rooms there, and there 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.160 was no furniture there in any office equipment. We borrowed 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.720 a lot of that from that was in storage because 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.359 the El Toro was under that brack program based realignment 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:12.760 program that was back then, so they had all this 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.880 equipment there. So we needed all this equipment. We brought 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:17.960 a lot of that in. There was a problem with 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.240 drinking water at El Toro. You couldn't drink the water. 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.040 If you remember that we had super super funds back then. 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.600 A lot of the military bases were drunk, were dumping 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:30.000 toxic chemicals that leads through leached into the groundwater. So 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:31.840 we had to bring in water, bottled water. We had 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.320 to bring in porta potties. So it was it was 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:37.359 all of that and then and then getting people out 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.879 the right flights, determining what flight say should be on. 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.639 That was that part was done in headquarters, trying to 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:44.920 look at the trying assess the and the intel we 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.120 had and where this threat was. There's twenty five thousand 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.120 flight legs a day in the United States, twenty five 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.639 thousand we had to cover, so you could imagine you 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:56.920 can't cover them all, so someone we had to decide 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.879 which ones we were going to cover, and and scheduling 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.520 was was a monstrosity trying to schedule that any people. 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.439 Then you had flight delays for a mechanical flight delays, 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.680 weather flight delays. Yet fans that were sick, how do 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:11.240 you how do you how do you operate all this 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.320 as all these moving parts, and then the intel was 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.760 was NonStop, especially the beginning. I was getting calls too 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.280 and three o'clock in the morning about incidents that occurred overseas. 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.359 They were just waking us up and get us the intel. 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.399 And I remember one time I got some information on 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.199 Remember when some molty pirates were out there taking over ships. 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:33.640 They've made a movie about it. So I get a call. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:35.720 It wasn't two o'clock in the morning, but I got it. 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.840 I got a rather rather long email on Somali pirates 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.480 hijacking ships. I said, well, what does that have to 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.119 do with L A X Airport? And hey, go, this 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:48.240 is our intel people. We were told to give you 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.520 everything because remember connecting the dots, and they were afraid 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:54.960 that they weren't going to tell something we needed to know. 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.159 So okay, I guess there's there's a lead from from 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.159 hijacking ships the hijacking air plane. So we got everything, 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.920 and it was just we were inundated with intelligence. In 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.040 the beginning. It slowed down a little bit, I think 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.240 because the intel slowed down, and you know, over the years, 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.919 but it was incredible just dealing with the intelligence. Did 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.159 you like the work. Oh, of course I did, because 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.920 I you were busy that first year a year and 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.680 a half. We're working twelve hour days. Like I said, 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.040 we're getting phone calls, we're getting woken up. You really 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.960 felt like you were doing something useful. And we always 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.720 saw another attack was imminent in the beginning. So yeah, 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.000 I did enjoy it. I enjoyed The Air marshals were 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.600 very dedicated. They they had signed up for this because 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.280