RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- For many service members and their families, one of the many benefits of being stationed in Germany is the ease with which they can travel, but everyone still needs to take steps to ensure their travels are as safe as can be.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigation’s 13th Field Investigations Squadron aims to help individuals do just that, and they’ve made it even easier by making their Counterintelligence Travel Awareness brief available online.
“The travel opportunities while assigned here at Ramstein are incredible,” said a 13 FIS representative. “As military members and Department of Defense employees, many of us are required to report our foreign travel and, as part of that process, obtain an AFOSI travel brief prior to departing to our destinations.”
The brief aims to educate members and prepare them for potential terrorist and counterintelligence threats they may face while traveling.
Previous to the new electronic brief, or e-brief, members would have to try to make the hour-long in-person brief, which took place once a week. Now, members are able to take the brief at their convenience.
Additionally, the new process allows AFOSI agents to re-focus their efforts on keeping the members of the community safe.
“Ramstein Air Base is the largest Air Force community in Europe,” the 13 FIS rep said. “That said, we service one of largest populations of Air Force active-duty members also. Many people think the AFOSI travel brief is just a one-hour brief, conducted once a week, and that’s it. The truth is there is a lot more which goes on behind the scenes, of which members may or may not be aware. AFOSI works to track threats and reportable information across the entire European theater.
“In the past, in-person briefings could only capture so much,” he added. “With digitizing the process and travel brief, it allows us to cast a wider net than ever before to ensure our military members stay safe and that any nefarious activity is spotted and reported to the proper channels. It’s a smarter way of doing business essentially. With this new approach, it allows us to refocus our manpower from casting the net out to seeing what surfaces when we reel the net back in.”
Though the e-brief will be the standard for meeting mission requirements, in-person travel briefings can still be made available to key personnel depending on circumstances or as a follow-up tool based on information derived from the e-brief.
To view the pre-brief and debrief materials, visit the Air Force Portal, search “AFOSI Travel Brief,” and select Ramstein.
For questions or concerns about the new process, contact your unit security manager or the 13 FIS at DSN 480-2381 or commercially 06371-47-2381.