Federal air marshals in Missouri work to ensure the safety and security of passengers, pilots, air attendants and others on board flights originating from Missouri’s airports. Often, federal air marshals in Missouri must work with state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as other federal agencies, to keep the skies safe. These include:
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- The Missouri Attorney General’s Office
- Missouri State Marshal’s Office
- Franklin County Sheriff’s Office
- The Saint Louis County Police Department
- The Independence Police Department
How to Meet Education or Experience Qualifications of Federal Air Marshal Jobs
in Missouri
Standard Requirements – Prior to submitting an application for a federal air marshal job in Missouri, one must make sure that the following qualifications have been met:
- The applicant is a U.S. citizen or national
- The applicant is not younger than 21 and not older than 36 ½
- The applicant possesses physical fitness and can pass challenging physical assessments
- The applicant is drug free
- The applicant possesses psychological fitness
- The applicant has a clear background (credit and criminal)
- The applicant is able to get top-secret security clearance
Education and Experience – The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) requires that applicants for federal air marshal jobs in Missouri meet the education or experience qualification in one of the following ways:
- The applicant has a bachelor degree. While this degree can be in any major, the most helpful ones to prospective federal air marshals in Missouri are in criminal justice, law enforcement, criminal investigation, psychology and sociology.
- The applicant has at least 36 months of experience working at a job in which he or she demonstrated data gathering and problem solving skills, organizational skills, and communication skills (written and oral).
- The applicant has a combination of education and experience.
In-Service Training – Missouri’s newly hired federal air marshals have a two-part training program to complete before beginning their job duties. For seven weeks, they participate in basic training in Artesia, New Mexico. For the next seven weeks, they participate in advanced basic training in Atlantic City, New Jersey. New recruits will learn investigative techniques, defensive measures, evasive measures, firearms usage and more during both of these physically and mentally challenging residential trainings.
Missouri’s Commercial Aviation System
The main commercial service passenger airports in Missouri that federal air marshals serve are as follows:
- Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St. Louis, established as a balloon launching base in the 1890s and graduating to the first airport with an air traffic control system in the late 1920s. This airport had almost 13 million passenger boardings in 2010 and averages 255 departures each day to 90 international and domestic cities.
- Kansas City International Airport in Kansas City, built after the Great Flood of 1951 leveled two other Kansas City airports. It was ranked as the highest-rated medium-sized airport by J.D. Power and Associates in 2010, and was also one of the first airports that year to have full-body scanners in use by the Transportation Security Administration.
- Springfield-Branson International Airport in Springfield, opened in 1945, offers non-stop service to 11 cities in the United States. In 2010, it saw 381,172 passenger boardings. The top destinations for passengers boarding planes at this airport are Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago-O’Hare.
- Columbia Regional Airport in Columbia, founded in 1928 on U.S. Highway 40 in Columbia. It saw 38,293 passengers board in 2010, and is served by one commercial airline. According to airport records, the average number of enplanements per month in 2013 was 3775.