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Originally Posted by 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?
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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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Webstral
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)
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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.