Th
e airmen who secure Air Force Space Command’s ICBM fields are dedicated to that one mission. As Col. John McBrien, head of the 91st Security Forces Group at Minot AFB, N.D., explains: “I don’t own the base. I don’t own the flightline. I don’t own the weapons storage area. I don’t own the gates. I don’t own the base patrols.” Instead, some 700 airmen of the 91st SFG “concentrate on the 8,500 square-mile missile field complex,” says McBrien. It’s the same for AFSPC’s other two missile security forces at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., and Malmstrom AFB, Mont. ICBM security forces airmen train for everything from riots to protestors to actual attacks on a missile launch facility.
F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard have deployed to Puerto Rico in recent days, continuing a major buildup of U.S. Air Force assets in Latin America aimed at combating drug trafficking and pressuring the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
