You may have called yourselves Security Forces but the official names have been as follows:
1948-1967: Air Police
1967-1997: Security Police
1997-Present: Security Forces
The Title of the “Top COP” has been as follows:
1948-1960: Air Provost Marshal
1960-1975: Director of Security and Law Enforcement
1975-1997: Chief of Security Police
1997-Present: Director of Air Force Security Forces
I was active duty from 1981-2005 and remember when they changes the name in 1997 because I had numerous SP friends and I was constantly ribbing them that they were now “warriors” and no longer “cops”
I must disagree. I didn’t call myself an SP - that was my MOS. My DD-214 reads SP. So does my fathers (I have his copy). These were the nomenclatures of use by the USAF at those time, and not something that WE called ourselves.
I was in Army Intelligence (1966 to 1986) in Electronic Warfare Operations (98J in the Army, 205 in the Air Force) and spent about half my career on various Air Force bases. I had many good buddies in the Air and Security Police and even then they called themselves the “Infantry” of the Air Force.