Good morning, afternoon, or evening to you! It’s Friday, this means a new blog.
Every week I post blogs on different topics about my personal experiences in my 8-year Air Force career (read about my career here). Currently, I am separated from the Air Force and using my free time to write blogs for you to have a better understanding of what the Air Force was like to me and maybe how it will be to you if you decide to join. There are a lot of different topics that I want to talk about in my blogs, which I believe are useful to those who are debating on joining the AF. My plans are to write more about my missions, deployments, and regular day-to-day life when I was in service. Tune in and let’s roll for this week’s blog about Security Forces.
Security Forces is the largest career field In the Air Force. If you think about it, every base needs police officers to protect it from people who are not allowed on base, very simple. The security forces career field has lots of great opportunities depending on the base, rank, and motivation of the individual. People talk good, some talk bad about security forces, I will say it’s unique in its own way. I experienced all of it and I can say, it is not that bad. You will be ok. Just like any job within the military, it has its ups and downs. I don’t think I ever met someone who likes everything about their job in the service. At the end of the day, if you got that job, you will have to do it so why not make the best out of it? Keep reading and I will give you some pointers to make your life in Security Forces better.
Ok, let’s talk about Security Forces, the good and bad. Being a Security Forces member, your main job is to keep the base secure and enforce the laws on the base. How does SF, keep the base secure? Gates, patrols, and flight line security. These are the 3 main jobs of the career field. Some bases have more additional daily jobs. There are also jobs within the unit for logistics and other stuff that are needed to keep the force going. Every single Security Forces member has done gate duty, rode patrol, and flight line security. It is called the “Bread and butter of SF”. All 3 have to be operational 24/7, which means there are usually 2-3 shifts within a 24-hour period (depending on 8 or 12-hour shifts). Leadership usually decides if they want their people to work 8s or 12s. Depending on how many people they have. If they don’t have enough people then it’s 12s and if they do have enough then it’s 8 hours, simple.
Gate duty. I loved it, some hate it. The main gate of each base has to be operational and open 24/7. This means that usually throughout the day it’s busy with traffic and at night it’s not at all. As a brand new out of tech school you will be working gates. There is no way around it. It gives you lots of downtime since there are more people there and everyone has to do their shift. The main job is to scan CACs*, making sure everyone coming on base is authorized. Time goes by quickly, it’s awesome.
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Riding patrol. It’s when you get to drive/ride in the police car for the whole shift. This one could be very boring or could be very busy. The main job of a patrolman is to make sure everyone on base follows the law and is safe. Writing tickets, responding to car accidents, responding to anything in the base housing, and other stuff within the base perimeter. To ride patrol, you have to know your job and be confident enough to deal with different situations that can happen during your shift.
Flightline security. The Air Force has lots of planes. That’s the whole point of it. Each Air Force base has planes that need to be secured at all times. That’s where flightline security forces come into play. Flightline security is posted on the flightline and their job to make sure no one unauthorized gets to planes. Sounds easy? Well, it is. The job is very simple, but you have to take it seriously, if one messes up, there could be some huge consequences.
Security Forces have to work long hours in the cold, hot, rainy weather. Wearing body armor at all times will be tiring, working on holidays is all part of the game. We had to train all the time, shooting, power points, self-defense, and other stuff that after a while will start wearing out you from the inside and outside. Doing the same routine for weeks, months and maybe even years will be 100% draining unless you change it. How do I change it tho? I will tell you, just keep reading. Besides all the stuff I have already told you, Security Forces offers a huge amount of amazing opportunities. You can get so many different great certifications, trainings, and military schools if you are motivated and want to break the routine.
I was fortunate to do Raven (read here about Raven), be on boat patrol, and be part of the base SWAT team. Like how cool is that? The opportunities are out there, it all depends if you want to take them or not. I see so many people do the same job for years, and they get burnt out so badly that they only talk negatively about Security Forces. They never tried to do anything different, they got too comfortable where they were, and that is the problem. I got into a negativity trap myself when I was a young Airman. Being new to SF I was excited to see what it is all about. The people I worked with have always been negative and over time it started to put a bad taste in my mouth about the whole career field. “SF sucks. I hate it, and blah blah blah” was constant on a daily basis. As a brand-new Airman, you expect people to help you grow and give you confidence instead I was given negativity. Of course, after some time I became like that as well, until I deployed, did Raven, boat patrol, etc. It changed my perspective from bad to good. How can I hate something that gives me the opportunity to fly around the world? Or ride boats all shift?
To be honest, Security Forces will be a struggle. You will meet negative people, you will work long hours, and you will start to lose motivation. My biggest advice is don’t stop exploring opportunities. Win awards, do school, volunteer, meet people from other jobs, build your network and you will see that Security Forces is not that bad. It’s just a job at the end of the day. Being motivated will get you noticed, and those opportunities will come your way, believe me, I’ve been there. Volunteer for deployments. The deployment will show you exactly who you are. It will show you how far and how long you can push yourself.
Thank you for reading this, I hope it helps. If you got any questions, email me I’ll be more than happy to answer them all.
As usual, I am posting new blogs every Friday. Sign up for the newsletter to be informed when a new blog comes out.
Got any questions? Send me an email or schedule your one-on-one with me here “Contact me”
Next Friday, my blog will be about, “My first deployment, Part 1”
Pass this information to everyone who might find it useful. Thank you for all the reads and support!
You guys rock!!!
Very Respectfully,
Vlad Kalinin
CAC- Common Access Card. Everyone in the military gets one, it’s proof that you are a military member.