An Air Force intelligence officer is assigned to an intelligence unit within the Air Force or to the intelligence squadron of another branch of the United States Armed Forces. Personnel with this title are commissioned officers, ranging from a second lieutenant all the way up the the ranks of generals. Jobs duties vary, but typically entail obtaining and analyzing intelligence data pertaining to military projects and missions. It is not uncommon for an intelligence officer to not be at liberty to talk a lot about the details of his or her job.
The United States military is constantly gathering intelligence data from around the globe. It is the job of an intelligence officer to obtain, review, and analyze this data in addition to briefing other personnel about it. The range of data that is classified as “intelligence” can vary widely, but generally entails information regarding the placement and movements of other military forces and terrorist groups that may pose a threat to the United States. This officer is tasked with the job of recognizing when threatening actions may be underway.
Air Force squadrons are traditionally comprised of both officers and enlisted personnel. As such, an Air Force intelligence officer may also spend a great deal of time supervising and training people of lower rank. He or she may also spend much of his or her time briefing higher-ranking officers and may have the additional duty of briefing officials from other squadrons or organizations outside of the Air Force.
Of all the Air Force jobs, an intelligence officer may be one of the most interesting. This person may spend quite a bit of time in deployed locations, gathering data and analyzing potential threats. Some intelligence officers frequently find themselves aboard aircraft, gathering and analyzing intelligence data from the sky. On the other hand, some people in this field spend the majority of their time sitting at a desk at a military installation.
The specialty of the intelligence officer may sway what he or she spends the majority of the workday doing. While one person may spend time studying overseas aircraft movement, another may study one specific group that could pose a security threat. Some intelligence officers also work strictly with combat situations, finding and analyzing data from a variety of sources to assist troops fighting on the front lines.