Find a rewarding career with OSI

  • Published
  • By Special Agent Luis A. Sanjur
  • AFOSI Det 632
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  If someone were to ask you, "What does the Air Force Office of Special Investigations do," how would you respond?

If you said, they are the people who wear civilian clothes and investigate military members using drugs, you would be partially correct, but that is not all we do. The AFOSI has many other roles and responsibilities which play a vital part in making Eielson Air Force Base, the Air Force, and the DoD a safe and enjoyable place to work and live.

Special agents are all volunteers who come from virtually every career field in the Air Force and include enlisted, officer, and civilian personnel. Together, they form a highly trained team that conducts major criminal investigations, detects and mitigates threats, provides global specialized services and engages foreign adversaries and threats offensively.

It's a job that involves excitement, endless opportunity, continuing education and training to keep abreast of evolving technologies, and most importantly career satisfaction.

Once accepted into the career field, recruits are sent to the Air Force Special Investigations Academy located on the grounds of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at Glynco, Ga., where all new AFOSI recruits receive their initial investigative training.

New OSI special agent recruits begin training at the center with an 11-week course called the Criminal Investigator Training Program. This course is attended by trainees from almost all federal investigative agencies. The program provides basic investigative training in law, interviewing, informants, defensive tactics, emergency driving, evidence processing, firearms, search and seizure, arrest techniques, report writing, testifying and surveillance. Students also participate in physical training several times a week.

The program is followed by eight weeks of training in OSI-specific coursework. In this course, topics of instruction include OSI organization and mission, ethics, investigative responsibility and jurisdiction, interrogations, military law, crimes against property and persons (physical and sexual), liaison, the role of investigative experts, computer crime, forensics, fraud investigations, environmental crime, counterintelligence collections and investigations, and force-protection programs.

The training opportunities do not end there. Once recruits master the basic skills of becoming a federal agent, they can request and compete for specialized training in a variety of fields:

-Forensic science
-Computer crime investigators
-Surveillance
-Polygraph, where agents conduct polygraph examinations into virtually every aspect of our investigative and counterintelligence missions.
-Some agents receive specialized training in the art of protective services. These agents often become personal security advisors for senior military leaders and travel with them while visiting high-threat areas.

In addition to some of the specialties listed above, AFOSI also has a cadre of agents who are selected for more challenges and opportunities to become members of our Rapid Deployment Force.

These agents receive specialized training focused on the counterintelligence mission and at times operate in very remote locations in support of contingency operations. Some of their training includes highly advanced tactics, weapons, and combat communications.

Of course, you do not have to opt for a particular specialty to become a special agent. In fact, the majority of AFOSI agents are not specialists and enjoy the everyday challenges that come from working at detachments and operating locations in more than 221 locations world-wide.

Regardless of specialty or training, each agent, like other members of the Air Force, must be prepared to deploy in support of combat operations. It is during these operations that our expertise and knowledge of counterintelligence is vital.

As the only Air Force organization responsible for conducting counterintelligence, AFOSI works off base with host-nation security officials to identify potential threats and threat information and then provide that information to the installation commanders, and national command authorities to ensure the safety of our personnel and resources.

Being a member of AFOSI is both exciting and challenging. Although we do not always wear the blue suit, we are still proud members of the United States Air Force. Yes, we are the ones who conduct felony level investigations, but we also conduct many other activities and operations that afford you the opportunity to live and work in a safe environment.

If you would like more information on applying for AFOSI special agent duty, please visit our public website at http://www.osi.andrews.af.mil/ or contact AFOSI Det. 632 at 377-1852 to speak to the AFOSI recruiter.