Air marshals were originally designated as U.S. Customs security officers assigned by order of President Kennedy on an as-needed basis , and later were specially trained FAA personnel . The customs officers were phased out in 1974 . Many of them transferred to the FAA 's Civil Aviation Security Division to serve as aviation security inspectors and also in the volunteer FAM program directed by the FAA 's Civil Aviation Security Division ( later renamed the '' Office of Civil Aviation Security '' ) . This program later became non-voluntary , required of all FAA Inspectors , breeding other problems within the FAA 's Office of Civil Aviation Security . In 1992 , Retired Major General Orlo Steele , then the Associate Administrator for Civil Aviation Security , hired Greg McLaughlin as Director of the Federal Air Marshal Program . McLaughlin was hired as an air marshal after the hijacking of TWA 847 and was working in Frankfurt , Germany , investigating the bombing of Pan Am 103 . McLaughlin turned the Federal Air Marshal Program into an all-voluntary program . The voluntary nature of the program and efforts by McLaughlin and Steele turned the small force of Federal Air Marshals into an extremely capable one . From 1992 to just after the attacks on 9/11 , the air marshals had one of the toughest firearms qualification standards in the world . A study from the Joint Special Operations Command ( JSOC ) later came out with a classified report during this time period , placing Federal Air Marshals among the top 1 % of combat shooters in the world . This is no longer the case due to changes in capabilities and training
Pan Am 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Federal Air Marshal Service