What it takes to join the Air Force’s 24/7 ‘SWAT’ team for nuclear missile fields
Need to storm a nuclear alert facility? This is the team you need.
BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED NOV 7, 2022 9:00 AM
Every second of every minute of every day, American men and women sit in underground nuclear missile bunkers scattered across some of the most remote parts of the country, waiting for the order to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles toward America’s enemies should the need arise. But Air Force launch crews are not the only ones working around the clock: so too are the security forces airmen who protect the crews and missiles from attack.
At F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, the 90th Security Forces Group is charged with protecting 15 missile alert facilities spread over 9,600 square miles spanning three states. The 90 SFG has to be ready for anything, so the group maintains round-the-clock quick-reaction forces who can hop in a helicopter, fly out to a missile alert facility, assault it, and secure it, just like a SWAT team for nuclear missile fields.
What it takes to join the Air Force’s 24/7 ‘SWAT’ team for nuclear missile fields
But what does it take to join such a group? The public affairs office for the 90th Missile Wing recently published a press release about one of the 890th Missile Security Operation Squadron TRF’s newest members: Staff Sgt. Kristen Witherspoon, and what she had to do to become one of the first women in history to join the force.
https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/air-force-tactical-response-force/
