Why don't all members of the Air Force have to be fully qualified to be a rifleman in case of hostile events?

Man to man combat should be last resort.

oh no! Let's just call in the Marines to guard our base and flight line! Seems so much more cost effective. That way we can safely be loading the bombs, etc. on our big important planes...sigh. dripping with sarcasm at this point. Really on a more sincere note why do we waste .223 ammo on zeroing for AF types??!! Not cost effective. DoD has been issuing the 22LR magazine to fit in a modified .223 magazine for training safety. All non-combat MOS should train with the .22LR rounds for weapon familiarity only. Possibly less friendly fire mishaps that way. After all congress is always looking for some cheap way to get the 'job' done anyway.

I was in the Air Force in 66 in basic we had to fire the m1 carbine 30 cal. and according to our DI the new M16. I was a crew chief on jets . We were told that even if we went to VN we still wouldn’t have a gun . Not even a side arm. I thought that to be total fuckin bullshit.

When I served during Vietnam in the USAF we were required to qualify every year. When I got overseas to Nakon Phanow we were all assigned an M-16 rifle. We did not carry, but we were ualified. I don't know how they do it now.

In 1963 we had to qualify with that carbine, they were old, but believe 30 caliber, and was explained to me that we would have to be trained to defend a flight line or maybe do counter-insurgency? And of course until 1947 we were the Army:) Thought the range almost not worth the time, except to scare the shit out of those unfamiliar with weapons:) It was my impression we were all suppose to know how to balance a load in any aircraft. Weapons I never thought of as anything but tools, like aircraft. When on my 17 birthday joining was sure the military would have me taught whatever they wanted me to know:) Did notice the ground pounders, especially Marines kept everything but shotgun and 45 away from AF Police:) At Offutt AFB sites they were using that AR-15, thought it 30 cal not 223, was a superior rifle, the M-16 so not much. My favorite rifle was my uncles 30-06 Springfield I , he also had a German 8mm, my brother and who eventually served were taken to a junkyard to shoot car doors with both, Mauser hurt my arm:) Ran into a few people that thought all of us should be William Tell, but most realized that would have made our armed forces pretty small:) Think the AF thought of us all as specialist, still believe that.

Today Airmen undergo weapons training as well as Air Base ground defense and chemical warfare training. Basic for Airmen has been lengthened to 8 weeks Airmen are issued M-16's (dummy weapons) in early training and spend an entire week in the field. No they are by no means infantry trained killers, but they are no longer clueless when faced with combat situations, and they do qualify with the M-16 live fire training.

The USAF Security Forces are very good. They are NOT ground maneuver forces, they are intended to protect USAF assets and places. But what they do, they do very well, as do the Army MP's.

You obviously haven't spent time with some of the Soldier's I've known. Even though every enlisted MOS in the Army is required to qualify annually, I feel safer when some of them aren't armed.

when I was in the air force in 71 everyone had to be small arms qualified cause most of us were sent to Nam. I went to Danang before I went to Nam the air force sent me to travis for additional weapons training M-60, granade launcher, laws antitank weapon. glad I learned.

I was in the Air Force and my job was a Marksmanship Instructor. I trained a lot of Airmen on how to use a Carbine and a M-16 and a pistol.. Trained a lot of Security Members also. If you think it is easy to keep a plane flying. The mechanics have to go through a lot of training that most Security personal would have nightmares trying. That was why they have a Security Force to protect those that have a real job to do.