Just ran across this video on YouTube this evening, which caught my eye because of the ‘Guarding America’s ICBMs’ blurb in the title.
Interestingly enough, the USAF Security Police unit depicted in the video is the ‘sister squadron’ that I supported when I was there in ’83-’84. They (3-man team) are responsible for guarding a 10-missile squadron. My squadron (88th MSS) provided five 4-man fireteams responsible for ‘covering’ the entire 100-missile wing.
Basically, the folks depicted in this video live in, and work out of, a Launch Control Facility (LCF). They respond to alarms on the 10 Launch Facilities (LF) within their missile squadron. If they verify an actual hostile threat, they call for backup, and the nearest two RF fireteams respond. In the evenings, after roaming the missile wing all day, we (fireteams) would be dispatched to an LCF to eat and bunk down for the night.
Politics being what they were, we (RF) didn’t usually hang out with the alert teams assigned to the LCF, even though we were both USAF Security Police teams. There was always an acrimonious relationship between us. It was like their house, and we were just passing through, flirting with their on-site cook (usually a female), and basically trashing the place (in their opinion). When the sun came up the next morning, we got to leave … they had to stay.
At 7:41 in the video, they respond to what is (or was, in the 80’s) called an Outer Zone (OZ) alarm at the Juliet-9 LF. While I don’t recall that LF in particular, I’m sure I visited that site at least once, probably a few times, in the two years I was at F.E. Warren.
I snickered, too, when they showed the inside of the LCF. I swear the doors, furniture and equipment is the SAME as it was 25 years ago!
The SPs are wearing different uniforms, carrying different gear, and slightly updated versions of the same firearms ‘we’ carried way back when … but the mission is EXACTLY the same.
Hats off to the Solitary Sentinels at FEW AFB and the 90th SPG!