YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- Air Force Office of Special Investigations personnel enabled U.S., joint and international partners during VALIANT SHIELD 2026 (VS26), providing counterintelligence and force-protection, supporting an exercise spanning thousands of miles of land, air and sea across the Pacific.
The large-scale, biennial U.S. Pacific Command field training exercise, held June 22 - July 1, brought together roughly 14,000 U.S. joint force service members, more than 200 aircraft and about 20 surface ships, with allied and partner participation from Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The effort found AFOSI personnel in Hawaii, Japan, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where they helped protect personnel, information, operations and resources as allied and partner forces coordinated activity across a complex theater.
“In the Pacific, no one operates alone,” said Col. James Merenda, commander of AFOSI Region 6, the Pacific’s top AFOSI leader. “This exercise reinforced why Reg. 6 has to be connected early with commanders, planners and partners so we can help protect the mission as it unfolds.”
In Japan, AFOSI’s 9th Field Investigations Squadron, or 9 FIS, served as a central hub for that mission, deploying 18 specialized personnel to seven key locations. The team’s work included 133 defensive activities, 48 bilateral liaison meetings and 17 intelligence reports in support of joint force requirements.
According to Special Agent Kena Bostick, commander of the 9 FIS, the exercise also gave AFOSI-Japan its first opportunity to support a Fifth Air Force-led field training exercise since the numbered Air Force separated from U.S. Forces Japan in March.
“Each exercise is an opportunity for AFOSI-Japan to assess its progress toward setting the theater and integrating with Japanese counterparts,” Bostick said, adding that meant more than observing from the sidelines.
“Our teams were integrated into planning teams, command-and-control centers and field operations, and provided support as forces moved across established and temporary operating locations,” she said.
Planning joint support
For Special Agent Catherine Kiyota, AFOSI Reg. 6 strategic planning branch chief, AFOSI’s role began well before personnel arrived at exercise locations.
Kiyota said Reg. 6 participated in initial, mid-planning and final planning conferences, working with Pacific Air Forces planners to understand where troops would operate and how AFOSI could support them.
In addition, AFOSI personnel were positioned Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Palau.
“We understood where the Air Force layout would be for the exercise, and we essentially placed AFOSI everywhere those forces would be,” Kiyota said. “That gave us the ability to quickly get information back to planners and commanders.”
But, she added, the scale of VS26 made that planning more complex.
Kiyota said the exercise crossed multiple unit areas of responsibility and included locations where AFOSI does not maintain a permanent presence, requiring additional logistics coordination, augmentee support and resourcing.
For Special Agent Rory Swafford, AFOSI Futures and Strategy division chief, that showed how AFOSI’s field work connected to decisions being made by senior leaders.
“We provided strategic direction and ensured AFOSI fit into the exercise in a real-world way,” Swafford said. “That meant helping identify priorities, understand commander interests and bring together information from the field.”
In Japan, 9 FIS translated that planning into daily support, like integrating augmentees with permanent-party counterintelligence Special Agents. While in Hawaii, Kiyota worked from the main exercise control group, consolidating reports from across the region to help leaders assess concerns.
“The exercise control group included representatives from each component,” Kiyota said. “Since [VS26] was led by the Pacific Fleet, I worked primarily with Navy intelligence and information operations counterparts to make sure AFOSI reporting was incorporated into the broader exercise picture.”
Supporting on the ground
At the same time, VS26 tested U.S., allied and partner forces across multiple domains, from high-end maritime operations near Guam to bilateral air operations in Japan, much of AFOSI’s work came down to teams at the local level.
That’s where Special Agent Antonio Webster, AFOSI counterintelligence branch chief of Det. 624 at Kadena Air Base, Japan, saw integration play out on the ground.
Webster said his day-to-day area of responsibility at Kadena is among the largest in Japan, covering Okinawa, the Sakishima Islands and the Kyushu region. That geography, he added, made host-nation relationships essential before major exercise movements began.
“Most of the locations we supported during [VS26] were places we had been before, with host-nation partners we had already worked with,” Webster said. “Daily operations included briefings with U.S. teams before they went out, along with bilateral meetings with Japanese law enforcement and military counterparts.”
That support was tied directly to bilateral air operations in Japan, he said, including KC-46 refueling, mass casualty aeromedical evacuation and rapid airfield damage recovery training.
“Our Japanese partners are becoming more settled when it comes to bilateral operations at the tactical level,” [DG1] Webster said. “That made it easier to share information and respond to reporting from teams on the ground.”
For AFOSI, those relationships often depend on special investigators and host-nation personnel, Webster added, who work under the AFOSI umbrella and help bridge language, culture and liaison networks.
“Our special investigators are a linchpin for us,” Webster said. “Without them, the mission would still get done, but it would happen at a much slower rate. They bring decades of experience and relationships with local Japanese partners, and that continuity is critical.”
But the groundwork extended beyond Japan.
Like in Guam, where AFOSI personnel supported similar mission areas. While there, Special Agent Rudolph Bender, commander of AFOSI Det. 602, embedded with a joint Threat Monitoring Cell, marking the first time Special Agents integrated directly into that type of construct.
According to Kiyota, the Guam cell synchronized partner and joint capabilities to identify and mitigate real-world threats, giving commanders a more complete threat picture.
AFOSI’s growing, joint-scale role
But, according to Swafford, these were just some examples of how the exercise showed AFOSI has progressed and become integrated into large-scale operations.
“AFOSI supports a lot of exercises, and we have been able to take lessons from previous events and apply them in a very tangible way here,” Swafford said. “During [VS26], I saw a clear improvement in deployment readiness, communication and integration.”
Back in Japan, Webster said one of the strongest signs of progress was watching Japanese partners take greater ownership of mission planning and threat awareness.
“Our Japanese partners used the reporting we helped provide and brought it down to the tactical level for flight planning and threat awareness,” he said.
Swafford said VS26 ultimately validated the relationships and systems AFOSI detachments had already built with joint and host-nation partners from the ground level.
For Merenda, that groundwork was the point. He said VS26 showed how AFOSI’s mission can move beyond a supporting function and become part of how the joint force plans, shares information and protects operations across the Pacific.
“VALIANT SHIELD 2026 showed AFOSI’s mission is not separate from operations, it is part of how the joint force shares information and builds trust with partners,” Merenda said. “In a theater as complex as the Pacific, those relationships and capabilities are essential to mission success.”