How to provide air marshals for every flight

The airline industry in the U.S. has struggled since the September 11 attacks, but the economic prowess of the flying business is not as important to our civilization as the operational success of overcoming the terrorists. Money is one thing, but the republic is another. And while the federal government has muddled along mumbling to itself over this and that, here I offer an idea that will solve the airline protection problem once and for all.

People don't like to fly anywhere near as much as they used to. It is not so much the new security hassles – folks would put up with them if they thought they worked. But it is knowing that the new security measures help, but do not solve, the underlying issue that makes people disgusted. A hassle that doesn't accomplish something isn't tolerable, but a hassle that fixes the problem can be appreciated, even regarded as the necessary exchange rate for competence.

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Air marshals report a federal security bureaucracy that botches, avoids and cuts the budget for long flights. No surprise there. That's what non-military government programs do: They lose money and act inefficiently. But this leaves the skies vulnerable and the planes available as cruise missiles for jihad.

What to do?

Simple.

There are about 2 and a half million flight-seats per day in our country. That is a number small-minded government bureaucrats feel bewildered by. Plane sizes vary, but for round numbers' sake, lets consider that there are about 10,000 planes per day we have to cover with security. If there were a good guy with a gun on every flight, riding in plain clothes, it would be very hard for a group of three or four jihadis with razor knives to go all the way. They might kill a couple people, but if every plane had John Wayne, a couple Glaser safety slugs would mess up the caliphate in no time.

So where is John Wayne?

There are about 2 million members of the United States Armed Forces. They take a beating every day in the press from whiny reporters who learned in sociology class that "all war is all wrong all the time." American GIs deserve a break. And practically, every single one of them is trained to handle weapons. I propose that it become standard military procedure to train every single member of the force, as a week added onto boot camp or whatever, how to defend a commercial aircraft in flight using a side arm. Then, DHS should tell the FAA, "Soldiers fly free."

Poof: 2 million new air marshals.

Of course, there are not enough members of the military to cover every flight. But 2 million people who, by nature of their job, are flying around the country or the world a couple times a year anyway, is really not a bad way to start. Soldiers could just be told as part of their duty that any time they fly a commercial aircraft entering, leaving or flying domestically, they are personally responsible for the physical safety of the aircraft and are compelled to carry an aircraft-designated weapon. If every soldier flies, on average, once per year, there would be about 5,500 of them available every single day.

That's more than half the flights right there.

For our next trick, we'll do the other half.

There are about half a million police officers in the USA. Their types vary and the census of who they are gives a pretty broad error bar, yet most are trained in firearms, apprehension, hand-to-hand combat, and we already trust them to tote .45s.

Give them "fly for free" privileges, too – after all, it works to secure the country's vital Dunkin Doughnuts infrastructure.

I shared the idea with my Jewish friend. He said, "Israel does that."

To which I replied, "No one ever highjacks El Al."

Duh.

If every officer took one vacation flight per year, there would be about 1,400 available per day as air marshals. Again, federal law could make it just "part of the job." Add one week of federally funded training to every cop in the country on how to do counterterrorism on the aircraft, hand out aircraft safe bullets, and tell them they earn their trip to Bahamas this year by being alert on the UAL shuttle to West Palm.

Between the cops and the soldiers we'd have 6,900 flights per day covered. That leaves 3,100 flights per day to go. If paid air marshals did two per day and were paid $50,000 per year, that's a salary cost of about $77.5 million per year. We can use ex-soldiers who already have the training.

Done.

Is there anyone in the government who actually solves problems? Who believes they can solve problems? Or do they think their main obligation to the public is to drone into a TV camera about how, in today's world, things are just too complex (for them) to actually fix?

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Andrew Longman is a Christian and an applied scientist.