After years of criticism and demoralization of the federal air marshal service (FAMS), its management finally has allowed their agents to dress in a manner that doesn't make them stick out like sore thumbs among airline passengers. Effective September 1 but likely already unofficially adopted, FAMS will allow air marshals to dress as casually as agents deem necessary:

Dana A. Brown, director of the Federal Air Marshal Service, said in a memo to air marshals that the dress code revisions will take effect Sept. 1 and replace a policy that some air marshals criticized for being so strict that they stood out on some flights.

Brown told air marshals in the memo that the policy was being amended to "allow you to dress at your discretion." He added that the new policy was designed to let air marshals blend in while concealing their weapons. ...

The previous dress code generally required air marshals to wear collared shirts, sport coats and dress shoes. The service loosened some of the restrictions a year ago, officials said.

FAMS never seemed to grasp that their mission required its agents to remain undercover. Instead, they enforced a standard that put its agents at greater risk, as well as the passengers around them. Terrorists who identified the agents ahead of time could make them their first point of attack; at the very least, their easy identification would lower the deterrent factor of having air marshals on board the aircraft.

Management insisted for years that the dress code would not blow the agents' cover, but the dress code they enforced seemed about thirty years out of date. Very few people fly wearing sport coats and dress shoes, even without the ties, as air travel has become less comfortable. The enforcement of the dress code made the agents about as covert as the narc at one's high school.

FAMS finally figured this out almost five years after 9/11. Let's hope that the government learned other lessons about security a little more quickly.

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