I personally don't know why they've wasted a news article on it. I'm sure the USAF has been using their ground crew for guard duty in the past decades, just as Britain has. I don't know about the U.S, but all military personel are trained to fire their rifle here. And if you're trained to fire a rifle, you can do any job asked of you that involves the use of that rifle. My dad was an aircraft technician and he had to do guard duty, just like everyone else. I don't see people wasting a news article on that fact.