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  • OSI Special Agents Jim Christy (left) and Ed Cutchins developed the disk-splicing technique in less than two days after industry experts declared it a near impossibility. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives)

    OSI computer crime investigations – setting the pace then and now

    OSI’s mission into computer crime investigations developed rapidly after 1980. As more people owned personal computers, digital record keeping and business applications conducted over the internet became commonplace.
  • A June 21, 1986, newspaper article depicting Vladimir Izmaylov as the Soviet spy who was ordered to leave the U.S. (The Scranton, Pa. Tribune)

    OSI counterespionage program nabs Soviet spy

    In the mid-1980s, Col. Vladimir Makarovich Izmaylov, a Soviet national serving as an Air Force attaché at the Russian Embassy, attempted to recruit an Air Force officer assigned to the National Capital Region as a spy. When the officer reported the offer to the FBI and OSI, both agencies agreed that he should accept the position in order to uncover Soviet spy methods and to build a case against Izmaylov.
  • By 1987, Office of Special Investigations' Operation EAGLE FLIGHT actions led to multiple company indictments to include Donallco Inc., employees being indicted on mail fraud, wire fraud and making false statements. Pictured is a Jan. 31, 1987 newspaper article regarding the fraud scheme. (Port Arthur News Newspaper)

    Operation EAGLE FLIGHT

    During the 1980s, OSI agents investigated a number of cases where it was alleged that contractors had defrauded the Air Force by providing faulty aircraft parts. When agents presented these investigations to a U.S. Attorney for prosecution, often the contractor would testify that they purchased the parts from the Defense Reutilization Marketing Office (DRMO), which stored new unused aircraft parts when their “shelf” life expired.
  • The U.S. Embassy, left, is pictured next to bombed ruins in Nairobi, Kenya, Aug. 8, 1998, one day after terrorist bombs exploded at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (AP/Wide World photo)

    The OSI Forensic Science Program – Yesterday and Today

    The resolution of violent crime is one of the Office of Special Investigations’ top mission priorities. Most homicides are resolved because either witnesses come forth to identify the perpetrator or overwhelming evidence points to the identity of the murderer. After 1974, OSI could also call on the expertise of its Forensic Science Consultants (FSCs) for assistance in the processing of evidence and resolution of particularly difficult cases.
  • Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Martin Carney in his Air Force blues prior to defecting. (Photo courtesy BBC World Service)

    Jeffrey Martin Carney: An AF deserter turned spy

    In 1982, Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Carney served in Germany as a linguist and cryptographer. He studied the German language, culture and history and became fascinated with the Nazi era. His sympathies stemmed partially from seeing himself as an unfortunate underdog, much as many Germans had done before the war.
  • Pictured is retired Col. (SA) Richard F. Law's Iran identification card while he was Commander of OSI Detachment 6930, Tehran, in June, 1970. (Courtesy photo)

    In the Midst of a Revolution: OSI Agents in Iran

    From 1966-1979, agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, now the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), provided counterintelligence (CI) support to U.S. military and contractor personnel, as the lone DoD CI/security agency in Iran. As part of the Military Assistance Group, agents narrowly escaped from the country when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to power in early 1979. The antiterrorism work in Iran was the beginning of a very successful program that served as a model for future missions throughout the nation’s history.
  • On May 11, 1943, American troops invaded Japanese-occupied Attu Island, now part of Alaska. Fearing a Russian invasion, the FBI and OSI went on to train island residents. (Associated Press photo)

    The Alaska Project - An Underground Spy Network

    In the tenuous early days of the Cold War, the potential for military conflict with the Soviet Union and the spread of communism were important factors that shaped United States military policy and operations. During this time, the FBI and the United States Air Force looked toward Alaska as a crucial strategic location in the event of war with the Soviets.
  • Brig. Gen. Joseph F. Carroll (left) being sworn in as OSI's first Commander, as Chief of Staff of the Air Force Hoyt S. Vandenberg (center) witnesses the swearing in. (U.S. Air Force photo).

    The Genesis of OSI – An Unconventional Beginning

    In June 1945, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received an anonymous letter from someone claiming to know that a high-ranking US Army Air Forces officer had participated in fraudulent acquisition activities during World War II. The writer claimed that Major General Bennett E. Meyers, Director of the Air Technical Service Command at Wright Field, Ohio, had profited from illegal wartime contracts.
  • Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center Forensic Examiner Scott Lalliss prepares to examine digital media in the DC3 Cyber Forensic Lab. Digital evidence can be any digital file from an electronic source, including email, text messages, instant messages, files and documents extracted from hard drives, electronic financial transactions, audio files and video files. (Photo by Stephen Murphy, DC3/PA)

    The origins and evolution of DC3

    For those not familiar with the Office of Special Investigations linkages to the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3), and for those with limited visibility on the evolution of DC3 over its roughly 22-year history, this article speaks to that foundational relationship, DC3’s capabilities to amplify effects for the broad range of customers it’s charged to support, and several ongoing mission adaptations to elevate support for its founding Defense Criminal Investigative Organization (DCIO) and Military Department Counterintelligence Organization (MDCO) stakeholders.
  • In just two years as an Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent, Frederick Seitz, 10th Field Investigations Squadron, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has embodied the command's Develop an Exceptional Force Line of Effort. (Photo by SA Michael Ornelaz, AFOSI 1 FIR, OL-A)

    Eclectic skillsets mark busy year for recently minted SA

    The Air Force Office of Special Investigations develops and leverages an exceptional force designed to be proficient in both law enforcement and counterintelligence operations, in multiple domains with a proactive hunter mentality. To that end, each special agent in the command is equipped with eclectic skillsets to suit a myriad of situations.
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