USAF Security Forces Deployment

[Webstral]

Can anybody help me understand the mechanism at work when a USAF Security Forces squadron goes forward with its wing? Let’s imagine that 15th Fighter Wing, all F-16s, is based at East Oshkosh AFB. 15th SFS (Security Forces Squadron) is part of the wing. In October 1996, 15th Fighter Wing goes forward to the FRG. Local security demands being what they are, 15th SFS is needed. How does this work? Does the whole squadron go and turn security at East Oshkosh over to someone else? Does a National Guard SFS get activated and take over? Is there a forward detachment and a rear detachment? How does this work?

By the way, I know that the Security Forces changeover didn’t occur until 1997 in real life. I’m imagining that with the Cold War still on, the Air Force steps up the transition to 1994. By late 1996, the transition is more-or-less complete.

[waiting4something]

I think most likely if a whole squadron was to deploy, the security force would be made up of DOD civilian police/security. I had a part time job years ago as one of these people on a Air Force reserve base. The Lt. Col in charge would have liked to have shit canned us, and justed used reservist sky cops, but he couldn't. That was always the issue with this too, if they got rid of us DOD civies, who is gonna watch the base when they are gone on a mission or just training elsewhere. I don't know if a active duty Air Base has DOD police, but I know the reserve and guard ones do.

[Webstral]

Thanks for that, Waiting. Can you tell me more about your organization, your training, and your gear as part of a DoD security team? Also, how old were your compatriots? Were the DoD security types exempt from the draft?

[pmulcahy11b]

I think most likely if a whole squadron was to deploy, the security force would be made up of DOD civilian police/security. I had a part time job years ago as one of these people on a Air Force reserve base. The Lt. Col in charge would have liked to have shit canned us, and justed used reservist sky cops, but he couldn't. That was always the issue with this too, if they got rid of us DOD civies, who is gonna watch the base when they are gone on a mission or just training elsewhere. I don't know if a active duty Air Base has DOD police, but I know the reserve and guard ones do.

Ft Sam Houston uses DoD police, and Lackland AFB uses them on certain occasions (AFAIK, when the AF guys are on some exercise.)

[alexei]

I spent eight long years in the USAF security police (the old name for security forces) in the 1990’s.

If there were contingency plans to send the wing to the FRG the wing’s security squadron might also deploy and reservists could arrive at the home base to take over operations there. For example, when I was stationed in Japan we had contingency plans to go to a certain base in Korea if something kicked off over there. Then some reservists from Stateside were supposed to arrive at our home base in Japan while we were deployed.

They could also form a provisional security unit using personnel from a variety of other installations. We had provisional SP units in Saudi Arabia throughout the Nineties. Personnel for these units came from other bases with what we called a “mobility” commitment or mission. When I was at a base with a major mobility mission we had probably a quarter or a third of our guys deployed somewhere (usually somewhere hot and dry) at any given time. When I was in-processing at this base I was also doing my contingency mobility out-processing, so I was ready to be deployed. You were ordered to have a bag packed and it wouldn’t be unexpected to suddenly send 3 or 5 or 13 guys to another base.

If the wing was going to a base that was currently operational, there should be existing security units there. The newly arriving wing would increase the number of personnel required, so those would probably be pulled from other bases and deployed to the forward operating base. Any cops currently at the base would probably be working additional hours, at least until the manpower situation stabilized. In an emergency we could pull people from other jobs, hand them an M-16, and send them to watch a fence somewhere along the perimeter - but that usually didn't work out too well.

[B.T.]

Interesting info!

Welcome to the board, Alexei.

[boogiedowndonovan]

Welcome Alexei!

very informative post. I had a question about USAF security police, did they have any anti-air weapons like Stingers or Avengers?

In an emergency we could pull people from other jobs, hand them an M-16, and send them to watch a fence somewhere along the perimeter - but that usually didn't work out too well.

"that didn't usually didn't work out too well", sounds like you have some stories to tell.

Reminds me of a former coworker who was in the Navy and station at Subic Bay. He had some good stories, one was when Mt. Pinatubo erupted and he got pulled from his job, handed an M-16 and sent to watch a fence somewhere along the perimeter. :)

[alexei]

Welcome Alexei!

very informative post. I had a question about USAF security police, did they have any anti-air weapons like Stingers or Avengers?



I never heard of any SP units using Avengers or Stingers. We used M-9 pistols, M-16, M-203, M-60 machinegun, M-249 SAW, M-870 shotgun. Some units had M-72 LAW or Mark-19 which could be used if we were in a tactical defense mode. I heard some SP units in Korea had 81mm mortars. I got out in 1998 so I don't know what changes were made since 9-11/GWOT.

[Webstral]

Alexei, thanks for that. So if 15th Fighter Wing went to Germany, 15th SFS might go in its entirety and be replaced by an Air Force Reserve SFS. Alternatively, some personnel from 15th SFS might be picked to go forward to an air base in Germany that already had an SFS on-base, where they might be added to the existing squadron or formed into a provisional squadron to supplement the squadron already assigned to the base?

Between these two answers, I have more-or-less what I need to push forward with unit designations for something I’ve been doing on the side. Waiting, I’ll definitely be accounting for DoD folks in the mix. The more you can tell me about things like age, background, skills, equipment, training, and draftability, the more realistic my work will be. (Sort of wish I had asked these questions when I was writing for 99th Security Group out of Nellis AFB)

[ArmySGT.]

The Air Force has a Security Forces Augmentee program. Units from all over the Air Base have to commit personnel to the Augmentee Program. These are for the Flight Line Guard and positions such as that.


The Security Police did Law Enforcement and Security Forces did Guard and Base Defense. Security Forces did go to Training at Ft. Dix and received Infantry Training (modified of course) and should be able to mount a defense with any Infantry small arms.

I am sure that the AF is like the Army. When an Active Unit is to be deployed another Active Unit will take their place or take their place until a Reserve component unit is on station. (Slang is "Spun up" like the "1212th MP Company (Guard) is getting spun up for that mission.) It can take weeks to get a Reserve Component unit on Station and months to get a Guard Unit on station. You have to get them released from their training, bring them up to strength, deployment processing, and quals.

MPs back fill other units with individuals , Platoons, and Companies. Even sometimes to accompany units like Special Forces as Security for sensitive items in Host Nations.

[alexei]

Alexei, thanks for that. So if 15th Fighter Wing went to Germany, 15th SFS might go in its entirety and be replaced by an Air Force Reserve SFS. Alternatively, some personnel from 15th SFS might be picked to go forward to an air base in Germany that already had an SFS on-base, where they might be added to the existing squadron or formed into a provisional squadron to supplement the squadron already assigned to the base?

I think either of these is possible. If a provisional was to be formed it would probably consist of personnel from many different bases. In the 90’s most of the bases with large mobility commitments were from CONUS.

Between these two answers, I have more-or-less what I need to push forward with unit designations for something I’ve been doing on the side. Waiting, I’ll definitely be accounting for DoD folks in the mix. The more you can tell me about things like age, background, skills, equipment, training, and draftability, the more realistic my work will be. (Sort of wish I had asked these questions when I was writing for 99th Security Group out of Nellis AFB)

In the 80’s and 90’s everybody was a USAF volunteer. You could go in guaranteed SP or as “Open General,” which was a collection of many specialties. Some of the people who went in as Open General would be assigned the SP specialty in basic training. Security Police wasn’t a coveted career field, so most of the Open General people who became cops weren’t exactly thrilled. Most of those who went guaranteed SP wanted some law enforcement experience for a later civilian career. Most of the SP’s were male, but we had a few females. Everybody was at least 18 years old, up to around 40 or 45 for the senior NCO’s.

Security Police was divided into two specialties: security and law enforcement. Some bases had one or the other, most had both. At some bases the two specialties were used interchangeably, at others they were separate. A lot depended on the mission of the base, and the number of SP's and types of resources that were assigned there. When SP became Security Forces in ’98 security and law enforcement were officially combined.

Law enforcement was responsible for police duties and usually manned the gates (controlled entry onto the base). Law enforcement functions would involve dealing with traffic incidents, domestic disputes, and/or alcohol-related incidents. Law enforcement also had a few K-9 dog handlers.

Security specialists guarded USAF resources, which were divided into Priority A, Priority B, and Priority C. (Technically a resource could have no priority – such as an aircraft undergoing major repair.) Priority A was the highest and therefore received the heaviest security. In addition the terrorist threat condition had an impact on the level of security. There were four ThreatCons: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta (the highest). Theoretically the threat be could so minimal we weren’t in any ThreatCon, but overseas this never actually happened. Security was quite a bit heavier when we were in Charlie or Delta.

Basic training was about six weeks at Lackland AFB. Security and law enforcement had separate tech schools at Lackland, lasting about six weeks. Then we went to Ft. Dix for a month of Air Base Ground Defense (ABGD), which was basic tactical training taught by the Army. Later ABGD training was moved to Camp Bullis in TX. After arriving at our first base we had to take additional correspondence courses. There was also a lot of OJT at each base. We had frequent exercises so we could break the monotony by chasing, tackling, and handcuffing each other.

For ABGD the basic element was the 13-man squad. The squad leader was an E-5 or E-6 with an M-16. The squad also had a trio of 4-man fire teams. Each fire team had a leader (E-4 or E-5 with an M-16), a man with an M-16/M-203, a machine gunner with an M-60 (or possibly a SAW), and an assistant gunner with an M-16. The last guy was supposed to help the M-60 gunner with his spare barrel and extra ammo. If we were in ABGD mode (and/or ThreatCon Charlie or Delta) we would probably be manning positions along the base perimeter with mobile NCO supervisors here and there. This is in addition to the normal interior posts, gates, and patrols. Theoretically an ABGD squad could patrol outside the base, but overseas the host nation usually wouldn’t allow this.

[rcaf_777]

I had a question about USAF security police, did they have any anti-air weapons like Stingers or Avengers?

Anti Aircraft Defence would most like have assigned to and Army AAD unit, in Canada we have 4th Air Defence Regitment (RCA), durring Canada's stay in Germany we would have 2 AAD batteries guarding Canada's Air Base at Baden-Soellingen and Lahr. I would think the US Army would also have to provide AAD assets to it's Airbases too

I think the British have given AAD to the Royal Airforce Regitment?

[James Langham]

Anti Aircraft Defence would most like have assigned to and Army AAD unit, in Canada we have 4th Air Defence Regitment (RCA), durring Canada's stay in Germany we would have 2 AAD batteries guarding Canada's Air Base at Baden-Soellingen and Lahr. I would think the US Army would also have to provide AAD assets to it's Airbases too

I think the British have given AAD to the Royal Airforce Regitment?

Us British have for airfields although the Royal ARtillery has batteries for mobile operations. The RAF Rgt ones are detailed in my RAF Rgt article.

[ArmySGT.]

There are a few Military Police Units with the FIM-92A Stinger (MANPADS) on their MTOE. 82nd MP Co. ABN.

The Stinger is an issue item for many units and is not a sole ADA item of equipment. It is for local defense, and often not integrated into an overall AD envelope. Other systems such as Avenger, Chaparral, etc are of course AD assets, distributed by the Corps Commanders to Divisions or kept separate as part of a combined ADA network.

My only reasonable explanation for why an Air Force unit would not have the Stinger in their inventory is two fold. First the assumption that their own air field would be so far from the front interceptor aircraft could be scrambled to engage. Secondly, they don't want an Airman to mistake a friendly for a foe in a tense situation and have a fratricidal shoot down. The latest renditions of the Stinger have an IFF interrogator built in but, not when first fielded.

There are different types of MP units so I imagine there are different Security Forces squadrons.

Divisional MP units, Corps MP units, Guard/Escort (chem or nuke munitions), Guard / Escort (Rail), Guard / Escort (Prisoner), EPW / Resettlement/ Internment (Prisoner of War Camp, internment facility, or refugee resettlement operations).

Then there is the Criminal Investigation Division (CID Special Agents) who are the FBI for the U.S. Army. They provide the majority of the Close Protection Specialists for Generals and Dignitaries.

[waiting4something]

Thanks for that, Waiting. Can you tell me more about your organization, your training, and your gear as part of a DoD security team? Also, how old were your compatriots? Were the DoD security types exempt from the draft?

Our training was a joke. We watched some anti-terrorism videos, where given some regulations and rules to look over, and taught basic marksmanship. Of course I was only a part-time federal employee so maybe the regualr guys got something more, but I don't think they did. Although the full time guys did have OC spray where the part timers didn't.
The gear we had was handcuffs, radio, M9 pistol, Remington 870 shotgun( 2 different types), and the old school rock and roll M16. The Air Force personal had everything we had and we drew our stuff from their Security Forces armoury, except they had the newer M16A2's.
The draft would usually be exempt for these guys, because most were older guys, we had some from the Vietnam War.They usually hire people that our prior military, or have been in federal employment before. The only guy that wasn't was some guy that had worked for a security company prior. I don't think part time DOD security police are normal. I was just 1 of 5 that took part in some weird solution to man power probelms.

[Webstral]

@Waiting:

So if I have DoD security types as characters absorbed into an SFS in CONUS, they should have some sort of age adjustment to make them generally older. Additionally, they can have a background in any of the services, not just the Air Force. The character type should start with some sort of rifle marksmanship. Combat time beyond 24 months (because the Second Mexican-American War doesn’t start until 02 JUN 98) can mean service in Vietnam, the Gulf, Panama, etc.

[waiting4something]

Yes, I think that sounds about right.

[rcaf_777]

So if I have DoD security types as characters absorbed into an SFS in CONUS

I think once to the war starts you would many people try or voluntary return to branches of service, like Capt X who serviced as maint Officer in Germany 1979-1982, the aircraft inventory has changed but, they used to fill a Base Security Officer Slot to free up a more suitable officer for service over seas? I could also see a really Fit and Keen DoD Security Type trying to get into Unifrom too,

Food for Though

[Webstral]

Some of them would have to be replaced by any warm body that could be made suitable, then. Perhaps older guys running armored car deliveries might find DoD pay more to their liking. I like the idea of further increasing the variety of characters who might be generated as part of a USAF SFS in CONUS in 2000.