{"id":6260,"date":"2012-11-28T11:02:04","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T16:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=6260"},"modified":"2014-01-25T18:10:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T23:10:00","slug":"from-the-ground-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=6260","title":{"rendered":"From the ground up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cNobody wants anything bad to happen on a plane, but if something bad does happen, we want to be there,\u201d said Anderson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Don Anderson<\/strong> traded in his car for a pick-up truck, bought some tools at Home Depot, and opened Anderson Construction. Thanks to relatives in the contracting business, work was steady for two years. By 1998, he was part of a crew renovating buildings at the Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s technical center in Pomona, NJ.<\/p>\n

The Federal Air Marshal Program, now the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), would soon use those buildings for its new headquarters. On the job, Anderson ran into one of the program\u2019s managers, and asked what exactly air marshals did.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be kidding me,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThere\u2019s a job like that? Are you hiring?\u201d The manager looked at Anderson with a \u201ccome on, pal\u201d expression. \u201cYou\u2019re a construction guy,\u201d he said respectfully. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for someone with a military background.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson rattled off the highlights: security police specialist in the United States Air Force. Honorably discharged after six years, plus 19 awards and decorations. Veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, where he was detailed to the Secret Service for missions protecting Vice President Dan Quayle in his travels throughout Southwest Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for someone with a college degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson, a 1994 TCNJ law and justice graduate, again had the right answer. Finally, the manager\u2019s skepticism vanished. \u201cReally. What are you doing? Give me your resume.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Different Path<\/h2>\n

Anderson, 45, has spent the last 14 years with FAMS. It\u2019s way beyond a job at this point. He has grown with\u2014and helped to grow\u2014the agency. When he started, it was a small program under the FAA. Now, it\u2019s blossomed into the law enforcement arm of the Transportation Security Administration: several thousand men and women continuously working to ensure the safety of those on board the more than 26,000 daily domestic and international flights that make up United States\u2019 civil aviation. FAMS, says Anderson, now the deputy supervisory air marshal in charge (DSAC) for the air marshals\u2019 New York City field office, \u201cbelongs\u201d to him and its thousands of employees. \u201cAnd I belong to it,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

The recent title brings Anderson closer to his home turf of central New Jersey and back to the field. He spent the last six years at FAMS\u2019 northern Virginia headquarters in a variety of management roles, including deputy chief of staff, where he provided direction to the divisions and its officials, and assistant supervisory air marshal in charge of the Service Policy Compliance Unit, which Anderson compares to internal affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to gain as much knowledge as I can and do as many different things as I can,\u201d Anderson explains. The ultimate goal is to \u201cbridge the gap between the field and headquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s first among equals and always considers himself part of the team,\u201d says Scott McShaffrey, deputy assistant director for the Office of Flight Operations, whom Anderson considers a mentor. \u201cHe has held a number of senior leadership positions and has done extremely well. He has always been resilient to whatever challenges are put in front of him.\u201d Anderson remembers various graduation speakers\u2014at his ceremony and others\u2014imploring students not to fear mistakes. He embraced the message. \u201cYou open yourself to challenging yourself and not being afraid of the unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u201cThe day I became an air marshal was the day I stopped looking for another job,\u201d Anderson said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That attitude emerged before Anderson was putting up drywall in south Jersey. After high school, he attended Rutgers University but quit after one semester. \u201cI was always one for studying on my own and learning as much as I could,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cAs silly as it may sound, I found myself in the position of being bored with class because I knew the information. I stopped going to classes and showed up for tests and I passed.\u201d Seeing how \u201cit worked for my dad,\u201d he joined the Air Force. That\u2019s where Anderson matured and discovered the value of an education. He took overseas courses from the University of Maryland, earning an associate\u2019s degree in six years. Eager to earn his bachelor\u2019s degree at a less ponderous pace, Anderson left the Air Force in spring 1992.<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s brother Rick suggested TCNJ (then Trenton State College), his alma mater. \u201cThey said, \u2018You have your associate\u2019s degree. Guess what? We accept all of that,\u2019\u201d Anderson says. It got better. In class, he had the opportunity to interact with mayors, lawyers, prison administrators, and, for a course called \u201cIncarceration,\u201d a former prisoner. \u201cYou\u2019re not getting textbook knowledge,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cYou\u2019re getting real-world knowledge of what it\u2019s like to work in a prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson then attended Rutgers School of Law\u2013Camden, where after attending two classes on the first day he \u201cbroke the record for the shortest time there.\u201d Anderson admits that he didn\u2019t consider the time and effort required. Besides, he wanted to get out of the classroom. He took a supervising job for a contract security firm, quitting after two frustrating years. That led to his abbreviated career in construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Can\u2019t Afford to Miss On An Aircraft\u201d<\/h2>\n

Anderson\u2019s 4.0 GPA at the College got him hired under the air marshals\u2019 Outstanding Scholars Program. There was still the small, draining matter of training: 10 weeks of criminal investigator training in Glynco, GA, followed by six weeks of federal air marshal training at the very facility Anderson renovated.<\/p>\n

The first part of training emphasized academics, specifically mastering criminal codes and enforcing them. FAMS candidates had to know what happened when the plane, which is United States territory, landed in another country. The federal government has different agreements with different countries. International treaties play a role. And if that wasn\u2019t enough to absorb, candidates had to learn about maintaining and fostering relationships with law enforcement in these countries.<\/p>\n

Part two reviewed the job\u2019s physical aspects. \u201cFirearms or hand-to-hand or defensive measures are so very important,\u201d Anderson says, \u201cbecause, unlike a police officer on the ground\u2014whom I have the utmost respect for\u2014unlike their environment, we don\u2019t have the ability to call back up.\u201d And, he mentions with a veteran\u2019s ease, \u201cYou can\u2019t afford to miss on an aircraft.\u201d Recruits who didn\u2019t pass a firearms test on the last day\u2014FAMS boasts the highest firearms standards of any federal agency\u2014would not get a job. That message rattled Anderson at orientation. How do I tell my family if I don\u2019t pass?<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the weight off your shoulders from graduating, or passing that test, I can\u2019t even describe it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the toughest mental challenge of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

After The Attacks<\/h2>\n

Emily Anderson was born at 8:33 a.m. on September 11, 2001. Thirteen minutes later, everything unraveled, and Don knew time with his new daughter would be short. By the afternoon, he was at headquarters. Air traffic was grounded. All the marshals could do was sit and stew.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wants anything bad to happen on a plane, but if something bad does happen, we want to be there,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cFor us, it was a matter of feeling, I guess, a little disappointed that we weren\u2019t on those aircrafts. Because we wish we would have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In light of a terrorist attack using commercial airplanes, the federal government rapidly rebuilt the air marshal program for this strange new world. Field offices were built around the country. In response to an influx of marshals\u201433 men and women were suddenly insufficient\u2014on domestic and international flights, a sophisticated scheduling methodology was developed. A state-of-the-art mission operations center was required to monitor missions and respond to incidents. Anderson, who had worked in a command center in the Air Force, was assigned to build it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea how to start, because you can work in an operations center,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it doesn\u2019t mean you know how to build one.\u201d Anderson and his colleagues did not ask questions. \u201cWe just did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were existing procurement rules and regulations, but I have never seen in my 20-year career such a collaborative effort to move forward,\u201d McShaffrey says. \u201cI do not know if you would be able to duplicate that type of effort, and I wouldn\u2019t want to revisit the tragic circumstances that created it.\u201d Adds Anderson, \u201cNone of the operations grew that fast and no one wrote a book on how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson plowed ahead, working with software and hardware engineers, architects, and other experts. \u201cIt got to the point where we forgot what a day off was,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cIt was countless hours, countless days, but no one thought, \u2018When are we going to take a day off?\u2019 Everyone was singularly purposed.\u201d The center, operational from the first day, was relocated to FAMS\u2019 new headquarters in 2003. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about a 24\/7 operation that [Don] and his team took from infancy to maturity level,\u201d McShaffrey says.<\/p>\n

With his task accomplished, Anderson transferred to the next stop on his tour of FAMS: the Philadelphia field office. The days of needing a career change were long gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day I became an air marshal,\u201d he says, \u201cwas the day I stopped looking for another job.\u201d<\/p>\n

All photos this page \u00a9 Dustin Fenstermacher<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou can\u2019t afford to miss on an aircraft,\u201d says Don Anderson, a 1994 law and justice graduate who helped build today\u2019s Federal Air Marshal Service. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,60,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-december-2012","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}