General discusses security forces status

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Julius Delos Reyes
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Airmen from Southern California flocked to Edwards when the Air Force Security Forces director hosted a director's call at the base theater here May 27. 

Brig. Gen. Mary Kay Hertog talked to more than 150 security forces Airmen from Edwards, March Air Reserve Base and Los Angeles Air Force Base about the security forces career field's status. 

General Hertog was accompanied by Chief Master Sgt. Bruce Broder, the security forces career-field manager.

"The demand for cops is not going down," General Hertog said. "If anything, we are victims of our own success. We do things so well that people want us to continue to do what we do and more." 

Security forces personnel are the Air Force's first line of defense, and it is their job to maintain the rule of law on all Air Force bases and installations. They are responsible for ensuring the safety of all base weapons, property and personnel from hostile forces. Security forces also train canine teams in all aspects of canine law enforcement and are occasionally assigned to an armory to control and safeguard arms, ammunition and equipment. 

"I work for you," General Hertog said to the audience. "I have to make sure that you are organized, trained and equipped the best possible way to do your mission. I need, and I owe you stability and predictability so you will know where you are going next, and you know how long you will be gone. I owe that to you and to your family." 

However, with the current operations tempo, General Hertog said the Air Force can't provide "stability." The Air Force has a one-to-four dwell ratio -- the number of months deployed to the number of months stationed at home. 

"Most security forces are at one-to-one dwell," she said. "Recently, there has been one-to-two dwells, so for everyday they are in the (Area of Responsibility), they get to stay at their home station for two days. But that is not good enough. Cops deserve to be like the rest of the Air Force." 

To level with the rest of the Air Force's dwell ratio, the security forces are trying to get more people into the deployment pool that will enable people to deploy less.

Security forces is also increasing the enrollment number of people who will enter the Security Forces Academy. 

"We are maximizing the school house by taking class seats from other (career fields) such as maintenance and communications." 

With the need to increase security forces personnel, another problem the security forces career field faces is the leadership vacuum caused by frequent deployments and decreasing retention rate. 

"I need to build some of you to be a chief, a colonel or to be my replacement down the road," General Hertog said. "We have that capability to do that, but we need to increase our first-term re-enlistment rate." 

However, retention rate is not just a security forces problem but the Air Force as well. 

"The Air Force retention rate is going down, and it is going down fast," General Hertog said. "Folks are getting tired out there. I don't want you to think that we are the only stressed (Air Force Specialty Code). We are not. We just happen to be the largest stressed AFSC." 

Another issue General Hertog discussed was the security forces training. 

"We don't do it enough, and we don't do it standardized," she said. 

She cited the Brave Defender training program as an example of standardized training. 

Brave Defender is an Air Force Materiel Command program that helps train security forces leaders for deployment to combat zones. The training provides ground combat skills training for AFMC and Air Force Special Operations Command security forces Airmen. 

She also discussed the removal of detainee operations duty for deployed security forces, changes in training, equipments, force shaping, security forces transformation and suicide rates. 

General Hertog said she appreciates the things that security forces Airmen do. 

"We got a lot of great things going on, and it is all thanks to you," she said. "Thank you for what you are doing. You are my Wingmen. You are what keep me motivated every single day I go to the Pentagon. I am extremely proud of you."