From the Washington Post: How to become an air marshal, the most secretive job in the sky

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If you don’t know much about air marshals, mission accomplished.

The service has been an anonymous layer of public security since the concept was created in response to a spate of plane hijackings in the 1960s and expanded in the 1970s. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, air marshals moved under the newly created Department of Homeland Security and TSA. The number of air marshals grew from 33 to thousands.

. . . To become an air marshal, applicants must be U.S. citizens between the ages of 21 and 36, although they can make exceptions for military veterans over 36. They need to have a bachelor’s degree or three years of relevant work experience. They have to undergo a drug test as well as a criminal and credit background check. They have interviews, mental and physical evaluations, a polygraph test and a physical training assessment. Starting salaries begin around $60,000.

The job attracts a variety of backgrounds, but it’s common to get people who’ve worked in military, law enforcement or government, LaFrance said.

Air marshal Regina W. Boateng, who’s now the assistant supervisory air marshal in charge of strategic communications and public affairs, says her application and interview process took roughly nine months. At the time, she was working as a TSA screener and was interested in a career at the Drug Enforcement Administration until she met an air marshal at her college’s career fair.

. . . Phase one starts with roughly seven weeks of what LaFrance calls “Police 101” at a Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in either Glynco, Ga., or Artesia, N.M. Alongside students pursuing other fields like the Secret Service or Amtrak police, their basic training covers a broad curriculum, including crowd control, constitutional law, crime scene preservation, responding to individuals in mental health crisis and more — everything you’d need to know for an entry-level federal law enforcement position.

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