QUANTICO, Va. -- As we reached our milestone 70th Anniversary as a global federal law enforcement and investigative agency, it is each member of OSI that gives us our stature’s stellar reputation. Individually and collectively they elevate the professionalism of our command.
The exciting news is the best is yet to come.
It starts with a rock solid foundation on which OSI is committed to recruiting, sustaining and developing an exceptional and diverse force pursuing mission success. This is priority one.
It enables us to operate throughout conflict, within any domain, conducting criminal investigations and providing counterintelligence services. We do this in a timely and unwavering manner, achieving public trust while protecting our nation’s capabilities in the process.
In the past we’ve talked about developing exceptional leaders. Now the conversation needs to center on developing an exceptional force. We facilitate this in a variety of ways.
Developing an exceptional OSI force can be defined as one which is fully competent and confident in basic skills to execute law enforcement and counterintelligence skills. Areas that support this are: technical expertise; professionalism (being a team player); and personal development which includes how to handle stress, harmonizing work with off-duty life; trusting their abilities and leadership; while accepting appropriate levels of risk.
We’re cultivating a proactive, aggressive cultural mindset of a “hunter not gatherer” mentality, when pursuing investigative leads and developing sourcing operations. In other words, we’re not just solving crime, we’re identifying crime.
Since we’re stewards of our Nation’s resources, we’re accountable to the taxpayers. We must continue to build public confidence under our strategic objectives and be more proactive in terms of media engagement. Our Command’s message must be easily understandable and marketable across the force and to the public.
A major advancement toward developing an exceptional OSI force occurred June 1, 2018, when after more than a year of coordination, the Air Force officially activated the new AFOSI ICON Center! To form our new Center, resources from the talented specialists in Region 7 and the tremendous capabilities of the Investigations Collections and Operations Nexus have been pulled together for improved synergistic support to the field, combining mission, authority and resources under a single commander.
There are still many moving parts to ensure a successful rollout, but Region 7 and the ICON teams have been leaning forward to merge all relevant processes and capabilities with an ultimate goal of declaring full operational capability by the Fall of 2018.
AFOSI's Center will be an asset for all Regions, field units and our Air Force. It will deliver agile, multi-disciplinary capabilities and situational awareness in order to enhance and synthesize operations and key decisions across the global enterprise.
It will proactively focus on enhancing operations and providing investigative field support to ensure our unique capabilities are tightly aligned against the most pressing challenges facing the Air Force today and tomorrow.
With a staff that includes integrated teams of expert investigators, analysts and other specialists to leverage all AFOSI authorities and capabilities, the Center will collaborate with national-level counterparts to de-conflict, coordinate and enhance AFOSI's global operations.
Plus, it will provide subject matter expertise and analysis on threat actors and their tactics, continuing to complete the thousands of requests for information from the field.
This is great news and a historic development for our Command as we Defend the Nation, Serve Justice, Protect the Integrity of the Air Force and Find the Truth.