United States Air Force Security Forces

United States Air Force Security Forces
Security Forces Badge
Active	As Military Police (1942–1948) As Air Police (1948–1966) As Security Police (1966–1997) As Security Forces (1997–present)
Country	United States of America
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Military police, Air Force Infantry
Role	Military law enforcement, Ground Defense
Part of	U.S. Department of Defense U.S. Department of the Air Force
Motto(s)	Defensor Fortis
Insignia
Beret Flash (Enlisted & Officer)
Occupation Badge

United States Air Force Security Forces are the force protection and military police of the United States Air Force. Security Forces (SF) were formerly known as Military Police (MP), Air Police (AP), and Security Police (SP).

In early 1943, the first Army Aviation Military Police Companies were established from existing Army MP units. 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 island of Crete to German forces and the subsequent 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 June 29, 1941, Churchill stated he would no longer tolerate the shortcomings of the Royal Air Force (RAF), 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 February 12, 1942 the United States adopted the British air defense philosophy. It was then that the Army Chief of Staff, General 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 (AAF) air base security battalions in June 1942 and was influenced by racial as well as military considerations. 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 37-mm guns. Of the initial planned 296 air base security battalions, 261 were to be black, however, the widening Allied superiority of air and ground had reduced this threat and resulted in a diminished need for this goal and by 1943 inactivation of units formed had already begun. In 1945 all AAF air base security battalions were closed.