The U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service program has reached what critics describe as an acute crisis point – now 18 years since the events of 9/11 – marked by a recent rash of suicides, psychotic episodes and devastating health problems
The U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service program has reached what critics describe as an acute crisis point marked by a recent rash of suicides, psychotic episodes, a murder-suicide, a bomb plot, devastating health problems and a pervasive sense of dread and depression among the ranks of the most elite cadre of marksmen and women in the nation, according to a month-long ABC News investigation into the secretive federal agency.
Yet interviews with nearly two dozen current and retired U.S. air marshals, as well as lawmakers, federal officials, psychologists and counselors who treat air marshals and reviews of thousands of pages of documents paint a picture of a once-proud unit grown physically and emotionally burnt out after years on the job -- and desperate to reach retirement in one piece.
The situation took on renewed urgency in a July letter from Hightower LaBosco and union vice president David Londo to the Office of Special Counsel , which investigates allegations of whistleblower retaliation and unsafe working conditions within the Department Homeland Security , the sprawling federal bureaucracy that oversees the TSA.
After the third NYPD suicide in June, Commissioner James O'Neill declared the situation a"mental health crisis" and began a summer-long campaign of urging his department’s most troubled officers to get counseling if they feel they need it and increasing the number of counselors available to New York cops.
When word of Sondervan’s death surfaced, it was many of his fellow air marshals themselves who were least surprised, Hightower LaBosco told ABC News.Suicide is the product of complex psychological trauma, and no one among dozens of interviews for this article sought to blame recent air marshal suicides and other debilitating medical maladies entirely on the job.
TSA officials declined to address specific incidents described in the letter to the OSC and the letter itself, saying that it could become part of an investigation. They declined to address specific incidents in this story, citing personnel and medical privacy restrictions, as well as restrictions on discussing sensitive or classified information.
2018 was a particularly grim year for the small, troubled community of roughly 2,500-3,000 active duty federal air marshals and several hundred more who have retired in recent years. “These [expletive] have gone out of their way to [expletive] with me in the worst possible way,” Turk told the informant, according to a criminal complaint. “And – frankly, I’ve had a [sic] Got damn nuff of it!” He went on to say that “I’ve come up with a plan to get them for what they’ve done to me.” Turk had sought out the informant to teach him how to make and use explosives, and also sought books and manuals on long range rifle shooting, according to the complaint.
The agency's air marshals have also been plagued in recent years by a raft of health problems, union leaders said, including early heart attacks, strokes and deep vein thrombosis , dangerous blood clots that usually form in the leg or thigh and can become life-threatening if they break loose and reach the lungs.
While he was recovering in the hospital, Burch told ABC News in an interview, “somebody in FAMS texted me and said ‘you’re the fourth [air marshal] this week to have a heart attack.
After being submitted to the government, the study was labeled SSI -- for Sensitive Security Information – which the TSA describes on its website as information that is sensitive but unclassified and that “if publicly released, would be detrimental to transportation security." While the TSA generates air marshals’ schedules based on federal guidelines, a dozen active air marshals at all levels within the agency’s hierarchy who spoke to ABC News unanimously contended that even the guidelines are commonly disregarded by scheduling supervisors.
“Ultimately the suicide rate became so bad at the air marshals service that I sat down with Bob Bray and literally begged them to conduct a study,” he said, referring to then-director of the air marshal service. “Basically, an air marshal has to come out from wherever he’s located and be out of the holster in a second and half and take a headshot, and to ensure when that round hits it’s going to take the individual out,” while avoiding civilian casualties or damage to the aircraft, Taylor asserted.
“I retired after 37 years in the military and I have done some hard things in my life, and also in government, but once I switched to the air marshals, it’s the hardest job I’ve ever done in my entire life. Just the physical, the mental,” he said, pausing."It’s the toughest job I’ve ever done.” "I’m a psychologist because I want to help people -- and I became part of the leadership that was damaging people, and that was my red line when I left. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I couldn’t be a part of an organization that was harming the people working for them.”
“These are, by and large, white middle-aged men -- former law enforcement and or military. These guys that they hired? The originals? These are the best shots they could find -- and now they’re falling apart.” After the air marshal in the video -- a military veteran -- committed suicide, “leadership went around and demanded copies of the video from every field office and destroyed them, much to the consternation of the FAMs,” she said.
"In addition to these inconsistent SSI designations, we have encountered instances in which the TSA redacted information so widely known that redaction bordered on absurd.”The accumulation of years of staggered schedules and alleged mismanagement has compounded the existing stress of working as an undercover air marshal, numerous former air marshals told ABC News.
“I was manic,” he remembered. “I went from giggling like a schoolboy with a firecracker to crouched down in the driveway between mine and my daughter’s cars and crying.” Eventually, Molan said, he became determined to get a gun, and marched into the house, cold-eyed and hollow inside. “The super gave me an 800 number – OK, great, but you call a suicide prevention hotline and they’re in Nebraska. So she’s trying to find me local psychologists to talk to and all that’s going through my head is ‘hang up the phone and get the gun.’ I’m one of those guys -- I’ve never in my life contemplated suicide. I always thought it was the coward’s way out, but your brain thinks it’s the only way to handle it.
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