The philosopher George Santayana in his 1905 book The Life of Reason warned that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Although warned, we have fallen into this trap again with President Donald Trump's actions to stem the flow of Illegal Aliens into our Country by hiring new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents without adequate screening or training as President Richard Nixon did in early 1970's by recruiting new Sky Marshals without adequate screening to address the spike in aircraft piracy.
In immediate response to public outrage and clear vulnerabilities in aviation security, President Richard Nixon directed the U.S. Customs Service and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to aggressively recruit, train at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and deploy nearly 1,800 plainclothes agents. This hastily assembled, inadequately vetted and poorly trained initial group were the precursor to the modern Federal Air Marshal Service.
I know because I had a front row seat in the early 1970's with the initial Sky Marshal debacle. As a young company commander at Fort Belvoir back from Vietnam about a year, I was tasked to provide logistical support including feeding them in my mess hall to the Sky Marshal Training Program that was established at Fort Belvoir in early 1971.
When President Nixon established the Sky Marshal Program, he appointed retired Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. as the Director of Civil Aviation Security to oversee it. Although my primary job was commanding a company with a real mission, supporting the Sky Marshal Program quickly consumed a major portion of my time and included routinely having lunch (in my mess hall) with General Davis to discuss the challenges of supporting his poorly vetted Sky Marshal recruits.
Most of the recruits had been recruited from rural small town police forces where the starting Federal GS-4 salary and thrill of flying all over the World was attractive but they had little formal law enforcement training and all the arrogance and tyrant attitude one would expect of a small town sheriff. Hence, my mess and supply staff and the arrogant and “entitled” Sky Marshal recruits did NOT get along well to say the least.
Are you beginning to see some similarities between the Sky Marshals of the early 1970's and the ICE Agents of the mid 2020's? Keep reading because you will see that President Nixon’s solution was to bring in General Davis, the right person with the right experience and temperament to fix the problem. I understand there is a recently available General that would be an ideal replacement for Eric Ruark as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Border Security and Immigration Policy. From the recent boneheaded actions of the DHS agencies in his portfolio, Ruark is obviously not performing so needs to be replaced ASAP. I’ll identify the ideal replacement later.
Prompted by the unprecedented global spike in aircraft piracy, culminating in the Dawson's Field hijackings where members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) attempted to hijack five commercial airliners simultaneously successfully seized four planes and diverted three of them to a remote desert airstrip in Jordan known as Dawson's Field, President Nixon was forced to take action. On 11 September 1970, President Nixon ordered the deployment of armed federal agents on U.S. commercial flights and the rapid creation and expansion of the Federal Sky Marshal program. Leading up to this incident, the U.S. had already experienced a severe domestic wave of skyjackings. Between 1968 and 1970, dozens of U.S. commercial flights were commandeered by extortionists, political radicals, and Cuban exiles demanding transport to Havana.
General Davis immediately identified the problems with the program as these:
General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. heavily criticized the initial Sky Marshal recruits, viewing many of them as highly unqualified, undisciplined, and poorly suited for undercover law enforcement work.
Why General Davis Opposed the Initial Recruiting Strategy
·
Rushed and Reckless
Hiring: Under immense political pressure to secure
thousands of commercial flights immediately, the federal government rushed the
hiring process. Over 1,000 recruits were hastily brought on from various federal
agencies or standard civilian applicant pools without rigorous screening. The preponderance of the recruits came from
rural small town police forces with little or no formal law enforcement
training and all the arrogance and tyrannical attitude one would expect of a
small town sheriff.
·
Severe Lack of
Discipline: As a strict, West Point-educated military
officer and former commander of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, Davis expected absolute
professionalism. Instead, he discovered that the fast-tracked recruits often
lacked basic firearm competency, tactical maturity, and emotional discipline
required to handle highly sensitive, high-altitude hostage situations.
·
On-Duty Misconduct: To Davis's immense frustration, early
recruits were caught committing embarrassing infractions, including sleeping on
flights, mishandling their service weapons, and drinking alcohol while on duty.
How General Davis Fixed
the Program
Recognizing that an untrained "army" of mediocre guards was a liability rather than a deterrent, Davis drastically reformed the initiative:
·
Stricter Vetting and
Standards: He implemented rigorous physical, mental, and
tactical benchmarks, filtering out individuals who did not meet high-level law
enforcement standards.
·
Rigorous Tactical
Training: Under his oversight, the recruits were put
through comprehensive training programs that laid the foundation for modern
federal air marshal tactics.
·
Shift to Ground Security: Davis correctly argued that stopping hijackers before they
boarded was more effective than trying to handle a shootout mid-flight. He
championed the rollout of airport magnetometers, behavioral profiling, and
mandatory electronic X-ray baggage screening.
Ultimately, Davis’s commitment to elite standards and systemic airport checkpoints effectively brought the 1970s skyjacking crisis to a halt.
What’s the DHS ICE Problem
that Desperately Needs Fixing Today?
Following a rapid hiring surge aimed at expanding the workforce to 22,000 officers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) faced severe backlash over its training protocols, leading the agency to officially scrap its fast-track training program and extend instruction. The controversy peaked when high-profile whistleblower reports and an Associated Press investigation exposed significant deficiencies in how new recruits were being vetted and prepared for duty.
The Core Controversies
·
Pared-Back Academy Hours: Whistleblower Ryan Schwank, a former ICE lawyer and academy
instructor, testified that the agency cut 240 hours of vital classes. This reduced basic training by roughly
40%.
·
Vetting and Screening
Flaws: AI screening software used to categorize
recruits mistakenly categorized applicants. It misread aspirational statements
or unrelated roles (like "compliance officer") as active law
enforcement experience. This allowed unqualified recruits to completely bypass the mandatory 8-week in-person academy and
go straight to field offices.
·
Loosened Hiring
Standards: In a rush to onboard thousands of officers,
ICE accepted recruits as young as 18 who lacked college degrees.
·
Omitted Subject Matter: Truncated programs eliminated or heavily reduced instruction on the U.S. Constitution, firearms
safety, use of force simulation, and the legal limits of an officer's
authority.
·
Elimination of Exams: Reports revealed that over a dozen practical testing exams
required for graduation were eliminated to boost passing rates.
The Government's
Response
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially denied that any hours or requirements were removed. DHS asserted that training was simply "streamlined" to eliminate redundancies and incorporate better technology.
The Policy Shift and
Correction
In response to growing public and congressional
blowback, the administration has initiated sweeping changes to rectify the
training deficit but leaving the person that allowed all these deficiencies to
exist for as long as they have is NOT the right person to see them implemented:
|
Reform Area |
Previous
"Fast-Track" Policy |
Current Reform Policy |
|
Training Duration |
Cut down to a 42-day
cycle |
Extended to a 71-day
core program |
|
Recruitment Priority |
Rapid entry of
underqualified applicants |
Prioritizes seasoned
law enforcement veterans |
|
Remedial Mandates |
Immediate field
deployment |
Past fast-track
graduates must take 30 days of follow-on training |
|
Vetting Guardrails |
Automated AI sorting |
Targeted reviews to find
and retrain miscategorized officers |
So Who Is the Perfect Post Retirement Military General for the Job? GEN Chris Donahue.
He should immediately replace Eric Ruark as the Assistant Secretary for Border Security and Immigration Policy within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). From the boneheaded actions of the DHS agencies in his portfolio, Ruark is obviously not performing so need to be replaced ASAP and, as proven by General Davis, it takes a Military General to whip these rogue organizations into shape and who better for the job then General Donahue?
The primary DHS operational components and agencies that should fall under the scope of General Donahue’s portfolio include:
·
U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP): Aligning strategies
regarding border security, enforcement, and the facilitation of secure and
orderly cross-border travel and trade.
·
U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS): Managing policies intended
to maintain the integrity of the legal U.S. immigration system.
·
U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE):
Coordinating interior enforcement and border-related immigration policy
initiatives.
Sounds like a
marriage made in heaven.
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