<Tr> <Th> Officer Beret Flash (superimposed with rank) </Th> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Occupation Badge </Th> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> United States Air Force Security Forces is the force protection and military police of the United States Air Force . Security Forces (SF) were formerly known as Military Police (MP), Air Police (AP), and Security Police (SP). </P> <P> The USAF Security Forces lineage can be traced to its beginning in WWII with the German blitzkrieg . Blitzkrieg relied on swift attacks by land and air . One of the tactics employed by blitzkrieg was the use of paratroops and airborne forces to capture, or destroy in advance, air bases . A key turning point in air base defensive thinking came with the loss of the Battle of Crete to German forces and capture of the British air base at Maleme in 1941 . This single action led then Prime Minister Winston Churchill to study British air base defense policy, and in a condemning memo to the Secretary of State for Air and to the Chief of the Air Staff dated 29 June 1941, Churchill stated he would no longer tolerate the shortcomings of the Royal Air Force (RAF), in which half a million RAF personnel had no combat role . He ordered that all airmen be armed and ready "to fight and die in defense of their air fields" and that every airfield should be a stronghold of fighting air - ground men and not "uniformed civilians in the prime of life protected by detachments of soldiers ." Churchill's directive resulted in formation of the RAF Regiment . </P>

What is security forces in the air force