Air Force Office of Special Investigations

Air Force Office of Special Investigations
Abbreviation	AFOSI or OSI
Air Force Office of Special Investigations emblem
Badge of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations
Agency overview
Formed	August 1, 1948
Employees	2,738 total (311 officers, 1,253 enlisted, 785 civilians, and 389 reservists)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency	United States
General nature	Federal law enforcement Military provost
Operational structure
Headquarters	Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia
Special Agents	2,029
Unsworn members	529
Agency executive	Brigadier General Keith M. Givens [1]
Parent agency	Department of the Air Force
Units	Several Threat detection Criminal Investigations Technology protection Defense Cyber Crime Center Antiterrorism
Regions	8
Website
[2]

The United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI, or OSI), is a U.S. federal law enforcement agency that reports directly to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Operating worldwide, AFOSI provides independent criminal investigative, counterintelligence and protective service operations outside of the traditional military chain of command. AFOSI proactively identifies, investigates and neutralizes, serious criminal, terrorist, and espionage threats to personnel and resources of the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense, thereby protecting the national security of the United States.

AFOSI was founded August 1, 1948, at the suggestion of Congress to consolidate investigative activities in the Air Force. Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington created AFOSI and patterned it after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He appointed Special Agent Joseph Carroll, a senior FBI official and assistant to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, as the first AFOSI commander and charged him with providing independent, unbiased and centrally directed investigations of criminal activity in the Air Force. Carroll later became the first director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. As of 2007, the AFOSI has 2,900 employees. After pilot training, OSI remains the second-most requested career choice in the U.S. Air Force.

AFOSI capabilities:

OSI's Cornerstone is to vigorously solve crime; protect secrets; warn of threats; exploit intelligence opportunities; operate in cyber.

In addition to the OSI headquarters at Quantico, Virginia, AFOSI has eight field investigations regions. Seven of the Regions are aligned with Air Force major commands:

While the regions serve the investigative needs of those aligned major commands, all AFOSI units and personnel remain independent of those commands. In the OSI chains of command each region is directly under the AFOSI Headquarters. Such organizational independence is intended to ensure unbiased investigations.