"The Super Bowl of a policeman's career" AEDC OSI agent first to attend FBI National Acadamy

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Arnold Engineering Development Center's (AEDC) Office of Special Investigation's (OSI) special agent-in-charge has become the first Air Force OSI agent to attend the FBI National Academy.

Rob Redmon attended the prestigious school at Quantico, Va., from April through June. A three-year veteran of AEDC, Redmon's office is charged with investigating felony crimes against the Air Force, protective service operations, counterintelligence, research protection, fraud investigations, computer crimes and similar activities. He oversees a staff of three agents and an investigative assistant.

According to the academy's website, its mission is "to support, promote and enhance the personal and professional development of law enforcement leaders by preparing them for complex, dynamic and contemporary challenges through innovative techniques, facilitating excellence in education and research and forging partnerships throughout the world."

Participation is by invitation only through a nomination process. Attendees include leaders and managers of state and local police, sheriff's departments, military police organizations and federal law enforcement agencies.

Redmon was nominated for the academy by the FBI Special Agent-in-Charge of the Knoxville division Rick Lambert.

"At each base we get together with the local agencies, the federal, state and city agencies, and we establish a good working relationship with each other," Redmon said. "Here, we just seem to have a really good working relationship with the FBI. We've worked

numerous cases together since I've been here, and I've told some of the guys in the office this is the first assignment I've had where we have unescorted access to the FBI."

Each FBI field office gets a limited number of positions per year to send people to the academy, and each military service gets one position per year, according to Redmon.

"Now the Air Force positions are all given to Air Force security forces ... so OSI has never been a part of the selection process," he said. "Rick Lambert gave me one of his positions that he normally sends from civilian police agencies."

Redmon said he learned a great deal at the academy, much of it focusing on liaisons and building relationships with other agencies.

"When you go there, everyone's titles are stripped; you are all there as a law enforcement officer representing your agency," he said. "You're not there as a chief of police or special agent-in-charge or anything. We stayed in a dormitory; we had a roommate.

"We ate in a combined cafeteria, and we had courses throughout the day. We could pick from a schedule that would be graduate level courses, and the University of Virginia supports that and actually gives the credit for it."

Redmon said the Arnold OSI already prides itself in its relationships with other law enforcement agencies, but other courses provided him with lots of information to bring back and share with his colleagues.

"I learned a lot about terrorism, how terrorists become who they are and different stages of radicalism," he said. "I also learned a lot about statement and benefit analysis. There are so many things that you see on TV that you think are so cool; you know some of are true, and some of them have a lot more scientific background than what most people think about.

"I met a lot of people with unique jobs around the country and around the world from other countries. It was neat to experience the different cultures, backgrounds and how they deal with law enforcement in their communities and how they support their nations' defense."

Redmon said he has already been able to share some of what he learned with his staff at AEDC.

"We've had some classes, some discussions on how to do different things, and I've actually seen several newspaper articles that come out from the Tennessee Fusion Center [which gathers and disseminates regarding suspicious activities, and information about terrorism and local hate groups] about certain activist groups," he said.

Redmon said the academy brought in speakers who expressed extreme ideologies and provided examples of the beliefs of some of these activist groups.

In addition to classroom instruction the academy also featured physical training four times a week. Each session was more vigorous, leading up the "Yellow Brick Road," a grueling 6.1 mile run through a hilly, wooded trail built by the Marines.

"People were pretty worn out by the time it was over with," Redmon said. "No matter how fast or slow you ran everybody was there at the end to cheer the last person on. There was a lot of camaraderie."

Redmon said that camaraderie continues to paying off as the academy graduates keep in touch and share information.

"I get 15-to-20 e-mails a day just on the distribution lists from guys I went to the academy with," he said. "You know, so-and-so's getting promoted or does anybody have a SWAT [Special Weapons and Tactics] operating procedure for this type of situation? So people are sharing information; it's working."

Redmon called the FBI National Academy, "sort of the Super Bowl of the policeman's career" and said it was probably the best training he has ever attended.