History: The Directorate of Special Investigations (SAF/IGX) traces its roots back to October 1947, when Special Agent Joseph F. Carroll, then Special Assistant to the FBI Director, arrived on-station at the Pentagon and was given a two-room office located near the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Air Force; Special Agent Carroll’s charge from this office was to establish a competent, centrally directed special investigative service to protect the integrity of all U.S. Air Force activities. On 1 August 1948, now Brig Gen Carroll established the Directorate of Special Investigations as an activity of the Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Air Force. Lt Gen Carroll retired after serving as the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) first Director. While Lt Gen Carroll’s Directorate of Special Investigations subsequently became the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), SAF/IGX continues this legacy through its current mission supporting IG equities world-wide.

Today, SAF/IGX maintains the following three Lines of Effort (LOE):

LOE 1: Plans and Programs - SAF/IGX conducts integration of, and develops policy for the law enforcement, indexing, counterintelligence, security, and cyber missions of OSI and the Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3). Major areas of engagement include management of taskings from Congress, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Air Force (SAF), and Headquarters Air Force (HAF). Additionally, SAF/IGX develops and advocates for legislative proposals impacting the IG’s portfolio and represents the IG in various working groups tied to Congressionally mandated reviews and other HAF interest items.

LOE 2: Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) - SAF/IGX advocates for SAF/IG’s priorities within the PPBE cycle, developing the DAF’s annual input to the President's Budget. Moreover, the office provides advocacy, oversight, and management of requirements and resources across the SAF/IG portfolio (4x IG Directorates & 3x Field Operating Agencies) with missions cross-cutting multiple programs (e.g., Law Enforcement, Counterintelligence, Cyber, Digital and Multimedia Forensics, Inspections, and IG Investigations).

LOE 3: Security Compliance Inspections of HAF SAP Programs - In partnership with OSI’s Office of Special Projects, SAF/AAZ, and HAF Security Officers, SAF/IGX executes security compliance inspections of Headquarter Air Force offices managing Special Access Programs (SAP).