United States Air Force Security Forces
The United States Air Force Security Forces are the ground combat force and military police service of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. The USAF Security Forces were formerly known as Military Police, Air Police, and Security Police at various points in their history.
Mission
As outlined in Department of the Air Force publications, Security Forces are responsible for protecting, defending, and fighting to ensure U.S. Air Force, joint, and coalition mission success. They are responsible not only for installation law and discipline enforcement, but also base defense and ground combat.The USAF uses the term Air Base Ground Defense for defense of U.S. Air Force bases. This specialty is filled by members of the Air Force Security Forces, who serve not only as military law enforcement officers, but also as ground combat troops defending U.S. air bases around the world from possible attacks. In these capacities, their duties are similar to a combination of the roles performed in the UK military by the RAF Regiment and RAF Police.
Camp Bullis in Texas is where all levels of Air Base Ground Defense are instructed, the course ranges in length from 4–6 weeks. In these weeks of training Air Force Security Forces are taught to operate the following weapons: M4 Carbine, M-18, M-9, M-203, M-240B, M-249, MK-19, as well as other base defense weapons and tools. In 1966-1969, sentry dog teams used the Smith & Wesson K-38 Combat Masterpiece.
Under the Interservice Agreement between the United States Air Force and the United States Army, the U.S. Air Force is responsible for ground combat operations to defend U.S. air bases. Air Force Security Forces fulfill this mission, and, as such, are trained in the whole range of infantry tactics, to include patrolling, close quarters battle, defense in depth, crew-served weapons, and other ground combat tactics.
Personnel
Leadership
The director of Security Forces is a Brigadier General and the highest-ranking Security Forces officer, sometimes referred to as the "Top Cop". The director of Security Forces reports to the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for logistics, engineering and force protection. The director of Security Forces has the responsibility to develop policy, doctrine, and guidance for Security Forces and serves as the executive agent for the Department of Defense Military Working Dog Program.The deputy director of Security Forces acts as the second-in-command to the director of Security Forces. The Security Forces Career Field Manager is a chief master sergeant and the senior enlisted Defender, acting as an adviser to the director of Air Force Security Forces.
History
Military Police (Aviation) and Air Base Defense Battalions
The USAF Security Forces lineage can be traced to its beginning in WWII with the German blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg relied on swift attacks by land and air. One of the tactics employed by blitzkrieg was the use of paratroops and airborne forces to capture, or destroy in advance, air bases. A key turning point in air base defensive thinking came with the loss of the Battle of Crete to German forces and capture of the British air base at Maleme in 1941. This single action led then Prime Minister Winston Churchill to study British air base defense policy, and in a condemning memo to the Secretary of State for Air and to the Chief of the Air Staff dated 29 June 1941, Churchill stated he would no longer tolerate the shortcomings of the Royal Air Force, in which half a million RAF personnel had no combat role. He ordered that all airmen be armed and ready "to fight and die in defense of their air fields" and that every airfield should be a stronghold of fighting air-ground men and not "uniformed civilians in the prime of life protected by detachments of soldiers." Churchill's directive resulted in formation of the RAF Regiment.On 12 February 1942 the United States adopted the British air defense philosophy. The Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, approved the allocation of 53,299 African-Americans to the Army Air Forces with the "stipulation that air base defense 'for the number of air bases found necessary' be organized and that 'Negro personnel' be used for this purpose as required." This order formed the Army Air Forces air base security battalions in June 1942. Units were deployed throughout the European, Asian and African theaters and designed to defend against local ground attacks. These units were armed with rifles, machine guns and 37mm guns.
On 29 March 1943, General Hap Arnold, the commander of the Army Air Forces, established the Office of the Air Provost Marshal, which established three separate organizations for the law enforcement and security role: Guard Squadrons, Military Police Companies, and Air Base Security Battalions. Guard Squadrons were assigned to provide interior law enforcement and security to bases within the continental United States, with a technical guard school at Miami Army Air Field and a military police school at Buckley Field. Outside the United States the duties of law enforcement and internal security were carried out by Military Police Companies, which, while a part of the Army Air Forces, were still part of the Army's Military Police Corps. Their training was conducted at Camp Ripley. Air Base Security Battalions, the direct predecessors to the USAF Security Forces, were formed to be the ground combat force of the Army Air Forces, much like the RAF Regiment is for the Royal Air Force. The battalions operated machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, half-tracks, self-propelled guns, and even light tanks, with the official history of the Air Base Security Battalions referring to them as the Army Air Forces' "infantry"
When the Air Force was created with the signing of the National Security Act of 1947, all members of the AAF were transferred to the new branch, to include military police attached to the Army Air Forces.
Air Police
On 2 January 1948 the Military Police were reformed into the Air Police and established the Air Provost Marshal. Immediately twenty-two military police companies were predesignated Air Police squadrons, however the term Air Police did not come into full usage until November 1948. The transfer of personnel fully from the Army to the Air Force was supposed to be completed by December 1948, however it was not fully completed until 1953. In April 1952 Army grade titles and MOS designations were replaced with Air Force AFSCs.In June 1950 the Air Force began urgent operations focused on air base defense with the outbreak of the Korean War. A buildup of ground combat forces began. The center of this buildup was the expansion of the Air Force Air Police from 10,000 in July 1950 to 39,000 in December 1951. Still, one year into the war the Air Provost Marshal reported that "the Air Force is without policy or tactical doctrine for Air Base Ground Defense." In haste, Air Police serving as the cadre of this force were outfitted with armored vehicles, machine guns and recoilless rifles. Air base defense was officially implemented by Air Force Regulation 355–4 on 3 March 1953. AFR 355-4 defined air base defense "as all measures taken by the installation commander to deny hostile forces access to the area encompassing all buildings, equipment, facilities, landing fields, dispersal areas and adjacent terrain." However, the regulation did not include provisions for sustained ground defense operations. Performance of this mission fell to the provisional base defense task forces to be organized and equipped like infantry. It was the Strategic Air Command's October 1952 edition of the SAC Manual 205-2 that rejected the notion that the USAF's ground defense mission conflicted with Army functions. SAC officials felt that success of the Air Force mission might require point defense elements that the Army could not afford to protect, much less have the Air Force rely on the Army to come to the rescue. After the Korean War, General Curtis LeMay had the Air Police begin the Combat Arms Program, to better train airmen in the use of weapons.
On 1 September 1950 the Air Police School was established at Tyndall Air Force Base. In 1952 the Air Police school was transferred to Parks AFB, California, and re-designated the "Air Base Defense School" to emphasize on air base defense capabilities. It soon became evident the emphasis on air base defense was not making much headway. On 13 October 1956 Air Police training was transferred to Lackland AFB, Texas, where it evolved into Security Police training and eventually became the US Air Force Security Forces Academy.
Toward the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s, the Air Police began to reemphasize the security aspect of their mission, with a strong focus being given to protecting the Air Force's strategic nuclear weapons, and a greater amount of centralization regarding training occurred. The Air Provost Marshal was also redesignated the Director of Security and Law Enforcement.
On 1 November 1964, between 12:25 and 12:33 am, Vietnamese Communist troops attacked Bien Hoa Air Base with six 81mm mortars positioned about 400 meters north, outside the air base. The VC fired 60-80 rounds into parked aircraft and troop billets, then withdrew undetected and unabated. The attack killed four US military personnel, wounded 30 and destroyed and/or damaged 20 B-57 bombers. U.S. air bases had become targets and became routine targets thereafter. The Air Force was not allowed to patrol the perimeter of their bases. That role was left up to the Vietnamese Air Force. Also, the U.S. Army was cited as being tasked to control the security of the area around the air base, and after-action scrutiny along with politics served to foster distrust and jealousy between services, chains of command and the U.S. and Vietnamese services. As a result, air bases in South Vietnam were left vulnerable. By striking at USAF air bases the North Vietnamese Army and VC employed Giulio Douhet's military concept, which stated the only effective way to counter air power was to destroy its bases on the ground. This concept has also been proven effective during the Indochina War from 1946 to 1954, when the Viet Minh regularly and successfully attacked French air bases.
The USAF Sentry Dog program was a product of the Korean War. On 1 May 1957 the Air Force gained responsibility for training all working dogs in the Department of Defense. By 1965 the USAF had a pool of sentry dog teams available for deployment to South Vietnam. Nightly at every air base, sentry dog teams were deployed as a detection and warning screen in the zone separating combat forces from the perimeter. Nearly all air base defense personnel agreed that the Sentry Dog Teams rendered outstanding service, with some going as far to say "Of all the equipment and methods used to detect an attacking enemy force, the sentry dog has provided the most sure, all-inclusive means."