Security Forces Spotlight: Women’s History Month
Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Women's History Month is an important time to recognize and celebrate the contributions of women in all areas of the military.

One area where women made significant strides is in Air Force Security Forces. Also known as "Defenders," today, they are responsible for providing air base ground defense for installations and assets worldwide. This includes law enforcement, anti-terrorism, and force protection duties.

“Female Defenders prove every day that they have the strength, courage, and determination to excel in any role they undertake,” said Laurie Sherman, spouse of the Director of Security Forces. “Their contributions to our nation’s security are invaluable, and we are grateful for their service.”

Women were not allowed to serve in the Air Force and other branches of the military until President Harry S. Truman signed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948. At that time, women were only allowed to make up 2% of the total number of servicemembers and were not allowed to serve in combat roles. This changed over time. By the 1970s, women were able to serve in a wider variety of roles within the Air Force.

One of the first women to break barriers in, what was at the time, the Security Forces Police field was Airman Andrea K. Taylor. Taylor attended basic training and the Law Enforcement Specialist Course and then joined the 94th Security Police Squadron in January 1975.

The career field has seen substantial progress since that time.

In 2006, Maj. Gen. Kay Hertog became the first female security forces general officer selected as the Director of Security Forces. Hertog entered the Air Force in 1978 as a Reserve Officer Training Corps distinguished graduate and has since risen through the ranks to become a leader in the security forces community. She commanded at each level and was decorated for her service. Hertog served as a mentor and role model for other women in the security forces field.

Lt. Gen. Andrea D. Tullos was later selected as the Director of Security Forces in 2016. Tullos was also the first woman in the security forces career field to make 3-Star.

In 2015 Chief Master Sergeant Tamala L. Hartz was selected to serve as the first female Career Field Manager of Security Forces. Chief Hartz is a native of Greeley, Colorado and entered the Air Force in 1990. She has led numerous positions at the Group, Wing, and MAJCOM levels.  With her strong foundation in training, she directly impacted the development and skill of Defenders throughout the course of their careers.

In 2018 Mrs. Heidi L. Scheppers was appointed as the first female Defender Senior Executive Service. She provided leadership, direction, and strategic continuity for a force of 38,000 active-duty and Reserve component security forces personnel conducting physical security, antiterrorism, force protection and policing operations. Mrs. Scheppers was commissioned in 1991 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. She served 14 years on active duty with the Air Force and entered the Department of Defense Civil Service and Air Force Reserves in 2005.

The Air Force also offers various leadership development programs to help prepare trailblazers in the Air Force Security Forces career field, and in the Air Force as a whole. Their dedication and service has, and will continue to inspire generations of future Defender leaders.

Air Force Security Forces leadership is working to enhance representation in the career field.

The Air Force is making a concerted effort to recruit and retain more women as Defenders. This includes the establishment of programs such as the Air Force Security Forces Female Defender Initiative team, which focuses on the recruitment, retention, and career development of women in the Air Force.

To find out more about the critical work that Security Forces does, follow us on Facebook or Instagram under the handle @afdefenders!

Air Force Security Forces is Looking Back to Adapt to the Future
CMSgt Donald S. Gallagher

Security Forces has a long and distinguished history filled with change. Through the decades we evolved from our humble beginnings as Military Police and Air Police, to Security Police, and finally in the late 1990’s as Security Forces. During these periods, emphasis shifted between law enforcement, Air Base Ground Defense, and resource security, depending on the political environment and threat.

Today is no different. We face “peer-peer” and “near-peer” competitors in both nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities, including such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. These current challenges and key events require us to change once more. This is how the career field can best defend air and space bases wherever our nation needs us to do so. We must learn from our past to fight current and future threats.

From approximately September 11, 2001 until 2018, our career field focused on Air Base defense and counterinsurgency in the AFCENT theater. After that time period, we were not sure what the next fight would be. The career field worked hard to be great at everything – but it became clear that certain skills downrange atrophied.

Studies and working groups examined the career field and determined what Security Forces should be - words such agile, elite, qualified and proficient were often used. One word that was missing however was focus.

Becoming an agile and elite force is virtually unachievable without focus.

Today, our Focus is provided by a Chief of Staff of the AF initiative - DEFNXT 32. The principal goal is to refocus Air Base Ground Defense competencies as the Security Forces foundation from which all is constructed. This initiative draws on our past and began in March 2021. It will wrap up by end of 2023. DEFNXT32 will ensure we are organized, equipped, and have the training backbone to be the world’s most agile and elite Air Base Ground Defense force.

Near-peer competitors will not allow our Air Force to organize for deployment like we did in the past. Fiscal and global constraints make it prohibitive to establish large basing footprints around the world. The days of large air bases like we had in England during WW2, Kimpo during the Korean conflict, Tan San Nut in Vietnam, Balad & Bagram in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively will serve as an easy target for our enemies moving forward.

These assumptions drove the development of the Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept where the Air Force will project power from small non-enduring locations for anywhere from 24-72 hours. This will require Defenders who can operate in small teams and squad-sized elements to defend that footprint through integration of multi-capable Airmen into the Air Base Ground Defense team. This could be in the Pacific, fighting island to island or in the European theater moving from airfield to airfield. These teams must be able to shoot, move, and communicate; perform mounted and dismounted patrols; guarantee perimeter defense; and be ready to move out to a new location - and do it all over again at a moment’s notice.

Our DEFNXT initiatives for equipment are critical to ensure we can defend air and space power while organized for ACE. We have almost completed the fielding of new weapons systems to the force.  We replaced the Beretta M9 after 30 years of use with the M18. After almost 20 years of service from the M4, we began fielding the M4A1 Carbine Rifle to replace the legacy rifle which also brings back the automatic firing option. Our M320 Grenade launchers with their incredibly accurate laser sights replaced the ageless M203s, making leaf sights and quadrant sights a thing of the past.

Additionally, due to the ever-changing face of warfare, we are looking at the feasibility of the returning some of our weapons systems of the past.  We need to question everything and think bigger than we have in the past. We are looking at weapons used today in Ukraine and comparing their capabilities.

The future fight will have our SSgts, TSgts, and MSgts leading Fire Teams and Squads in dynamic situations for short periods of time. Therefore, our training must prepare them for that.

In the past year we took a comprehensive look at our full range of training courses and determined that we must establish realistic, hard and challenging training for all Defenders ranging from the 3 Level Apprentice Course and Officers Course to the advanced training we were providing to our NCOs/SNCOs & Officers. Arguably, the stage for everything we do is firmly established at the Security Forces School House.

Some of the names of our “New” courses may sound very familiar to you. The Combat Leaders Course (CLC) returned and went live August 2022. This replaced the Intermediate Course that existed since Fall of 2018. It is tough and focuses on our SSgts/TSgts and our newest Officers.

Our Advanced Course was replaced by another familiar course from the past - IDC3, otherwise known as the Integrated Defense Command, Control, Course. This course places our SNCOs/CGOs/FGOs in leadership roles in “S” functions as they “run” operations in a deployed situation, plan the base defense and test their planning vs. computer generated scenarios.

The Security Forces Officers Course (SFOC) relaunched as the Basic Officers Course (BOC), the course builds on individual, and team skills and places our future Defender leaders in stress-based leadership scenarios that culminate with a 14-day FTX before graduation.

The last course relaunch is our 3-level Apprentice course which will be known as the Basic Defender Course (BDC). This 13-week course will focus on Individual and Team skills and will spend a significant amount of time on shoot/move/communicate skills and introduces Defenders to the basics of mounted/dismounted/perimeter defense operations. Students will qualify with their weapons and then fire on three additional occasions to continue to sharpen their basic rifle and pistol marksmanship skills.  This course will also conclude with an FTX to preform basic Air Base Ground Defense operations. To free up time and space and to ensure proper focus on the basics of Air Base Ground Defense, we removed law enforcement subjects, except for basic searching & handcuffing, jurisdiction and rights advisement from the curriculum.

Many have heard the career field is splitting, and Law Enforcement and Security will become separate again. That is not accurate. In order to ensure we are agile and elite Air Base Ground Defenders, we are going to begin their careers building core skills. A subset of our military members will then get to professionalize in Law Enforcement, ensuring we are experts at that important part of our mission.

We created a Law Enforcement SEI as we move to “professionalize” our Law Enforcement mission again. We will publish the qualifying factors to be considered for selection to attend Law Enforcement training at either the Veterans Administration Law Training Course (VALETC) or the Marine Corps Basic Police Officers Course (BPOC) and award or the SEI. The career field is professionalizing; it is not splitting nor is it specializing.

These are just a few of initiatives we as a career field have been working one over the last 18 months. As you can see, whether it’s how we organize for war, the weapons systems we employ, the way we train, or the way we conduct Air Base Ground Defense and Law Enforcement, what was once old is new again. We are learning from the past to adapt to the future. We will continue to evolve as a career field - always improving our fighting position and always striving to be better than we were the day before.

We are still jack of all trades, but we are masters of one: Air Base Ground Defense!

5 January 2023

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

GENERAL OFFICER ASSIGNMENT:

BRIG GEN THOMAS P. SHERMAN

FROM:   Deputy Director, Capability Development and Operation Requirements, Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategy, Integration, and Requirements, Headquarters United States Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, DC

TO:        Director, Security Forces, Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, Headquarters United States Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, DC

Defender Nation Farewell Note!

Defenders - it is my honor to have this opportunity to say THANK YOU for your Leadership and Sacrifice over the last three plus years.  I have been honored to serve Defender Nation as the Director.  What I will remember most about this opportunity is the tenacity from the field to continue to work hard and ensure our Defenders are trained and proficient at the skills needed to protect our families, resources, mission and each other!

Although the time has flown by, I had the opportunity to visit many units and staffs and meet the faces behind the positions that truly make our Career Field great.  Every unit has a unique mission...and an internal culture that ensures our Defenders are well taken care of.   Many thanks to the Command teams across the career field!  Your leadership does not go unnoticed, as you ensure 43K Total Force Defenders remain OUR focus.

Over the last three years, we made substantial progress for the career field. Thank you to the Defenders who championed key initiatives and focused on our primary mission of Air Base Ground Defense.

Together, we made tremendous progress toward Air Base Ground Defense, female defender retention & progression, physical fitness, Integrated Case Management, Cyber Security, Weapons & Tactics, Law Enforcement and much more.

My heart remains with those Defender on the frontline that you lead...whom stand post all around the world and in all-weather conditions to ensure Mission Success!

We are very fortunate to have great SF COMMAND Teams, like YOU...on the frontline leading the Total Force and those that have come before us! 

I wish you ALL the very best in your Command "TEAM" tours!

Always remember we EARN our Badge and Beret every day...wishing you ALL the Best!

Stay Safe!

VR - Defender Collins
Brig Gen Collins
Director of Security Forces

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Editor's Note: Brig Gen Collins has moved to a joint command position and Mr Timothy Gerald is now the Action Director of Security Forces.