OSI -- putting the pieces together

  • Published
  • By Capt. Aaron Burgstein
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  Many people know the Air Force Office of Special Investigations as the Air Force’s felony-level investigative service that uncovers crimes and fraud.

However, there is a side of OSI that most people do not know about, at least until they deploy.

“Our primary mission, both at home and deployed, is counterintelligence support to force protection,” said Special Agent Valerie Mackin, superintendent of OSI Expeditionary Detachment 2402 here. “We help the force protection folks prevent threats to our forces.”

That mission takes agents off base to places many Airmen may never see during a deployment.

“We spend about 80 to 90 percent of our time off base,” Agent Mackin said. “We go downtown to meet with our host-nation contacts to determine what the threats are and find out what groups are in the area: insurgents, extremists, terrorists -- the bad guys. Are they in this area? What is their modus operandi? What do we need to do to counter it?”

To that end, OSI agents work closely with their host-nation counterparts in law enforcement and the military. Using information gleaned from these contacts, along with their own investigations, OSI agents can form a threat picture of the local area.

However, there is another, equally important information resource the OSI relies on: Airmen using "Eagle Eyes."

Eagle Eyes is an Air Force program similar to a neighborhood watch, only adapted for a military mindset, officials said.

“Anybody can be our eyes and ears,” Agent Mackin said. “Anybody can have that vital bit of information about someone trying to watch us or elicit info from our people.”

What the agents do closely resembles puzzle making. They take bits and pieces from here and there and build them into a picture that can point out trends and possible threats. Doing so in a timely manner helps thwart possible attacks before they even happen, officials said.

“We deal in rumors,” Agent Mackin said. “There is never too much information. We want people to bring (the rumors) to us. We’re not going to jump off of a rumor, but we’ll have it as a starting point and be able to determine if it is true or false.”

Agents do that through link analysis -- taking those bits of information, gathered over time, and tying them together.

Besides their normal training, OSI agents attend a six-week course before deploying to help prepare them for the unique challenges of working in Southwest Asia.

They role-play being in a deployed environment during the course, which includes dealing with local people and translators, and, of course, putting the pieces of a threat puzzle together.

Besides the counterintelligence mission, OSI agents are also responsible for investigating all sexual assaults in theater as well as all Air Force deaths, both combat and non-combat.

“We also look into combat injuries,” Agent Mackin said. “But only if there is something suspicious about (them). If the medical folks alert us to something that’s not quite right, we’ll take a look.”

Agents deploy for 179 days; however, being deployed has its benefits.

“The best thing about being deployed is that you get to integrate yourself with the base more so than at home station,” Agent Mackin said. “You get to know more people, and they’re more comfortable talking and working with you.”

Agent Mackin said this benefit works on two levels: personal and professional.

“People aren’t afraid to come talk to us, which lets us do our job, which means we help protect them,” she said.