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Expeditionary Skills Summit aims to streamline training for Airmen

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Paula Paige
  • U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Public Affairs
FORT DIX, N.J. --  The evolving Global War on Terrorism has made Col. Jenny Pickett's personal mission of "keeping Airmen alive" more challenging these days.

The commandant of the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Operations School, which trains Airmen for deployment, says inconsistencies in where and how troops gain war-fighting proficiency are not serving our Airmen well. The classic example is an Airmen facing terroristic threats from insurgents and having insufficient training to defend themselves and their wingmen.

To help tame this beast of inconsistency, Colonel Pickett helped organize the Expeditionary Skills Summit held from Sept. 3-5 at the Expeditionary Center on Fort Dix where her school is based. The event, attended by more than 60 key leaders representing government civilians, active-duty Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, focused on a common understanding of the expeditionary process, identified gaps and overlaps in skills training and charted the way ahead.

"This summit is very important," Colonel Pickett said. "In addition to developing a common understanding of what it means to be an expeditionary Airman, we will address overarching training requirements to prepare Airmen to do their deployed jobs safely and to return home with their wingmen."

Summit participants acknowledged that the evolving post 9-11 environment had changed the mission of average deploying Airmen, moving them from support roles to more dangerous ones where their combat environments require skills that previously were allotted to security forces.

For all Airmen, the first of four "tiers" of training begins in basic training, with foundational instruction in areas, such as rifle firing and chemical warfare. Follow-on training in Tiers 2, 3 and 4, builds on an Airman's combat survival skills. By Tiers 3 and 4, those Airmen facing the greatest threats are able to hone their special skills required to support combat operations.

The Expeditionary Center is one of several training sites where Airmen beef up their combat skills before deployment. The others are Camp Bullis, a nearly 28,000-acre facility in North San Antonio, where many expeditionary combat skills training courses are conducted; and Camp Guernsey in rural southeast Wyoming, near F.E. Warren AFB. At Camp Guernsey, Airmen become skilled at convoy operations security, forward operating base security and learn how to clear buildings and villages of potential threats.

Meanwhile, in a corner classroom of the Expeditionary Center, an animated summit presenter urged attendees to unite on changes for the more than 500,000 members of the Total Air Force.

"We're moving to a place where every Airman is in combat arms," said Col. Scott Bethel, deputy director of operations for technical training from the Air Education and Training Command at Randolph AFB, Texas. "We've been inconsistent on (training)...Is this going to be an enduring mission or is it GWOT focused? Who will do the training? What will we do as an Air Force to ensure our Airmen are ready (to go to war)? We need to figure out what to do better to get the expeditionary Airman trained.

"This isn't about 'who moved my cheese?' " Colonel Bethel said, referring to the best-selling business fable on embracing personal and organizational change. "The 'cheese' moved. ...We've got a bag of feathers hoping a duck appears."

Beyond dairy tales and fowl play, the Expeditionary Center's leader focused on more somber reasons for the summit.

"Our casualties on the ground far exceed our losses in the air over the past seven years," said Maj. Gen Kip Self, who hosted the summit and spent much of his time interacting with participants. "Zero combat losses is my goal. This summit is similar to Training Review Boards conducted amongst aircrew to discuss tactics, techniques and procedures. This is an initial attempt to do the same for our expeditionary combat support (ECS) warriors. Training venues like the Expeditionary Center are making a difference in preparing today's warriors. We must train our ECS forces with the same vigor we do our aircrews."

About 78 Airmen have died and 476 were wounded in action since Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom began, according to recent figures from the Department of Defense Casualty Reporting Office.

Since Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom began, about 80,000 Airmen have deployed annually to support the wartime effort, Colonel Bethel said, adding that that number is even higher when you include support for missions in Bosnia. About 35,000 of those Airmen get advanced skills training in areas such as emergency medical field training, he said. "Somewhere in there, there is a gap."

Col. Stephen Shea's job as deputy director of global combat support at the Pentagon puts him in an influential position for training the Airmen who deploy. At the end of the summit on Friday, he expressed relief that several key issues were being resolved.

"With AETC taking the lead command and the 'memorandum of understanding' clarifying the Expeditionary Center's role as expeditionary skills training provider, that's helped in the synchronization process," Colonel Shea said.

SUMMING UP THE SUMMIT
How will the decisions made at the Expeditionary Skills Summit affect the Air Force rank and file? Here's what you need to know:

What: More than 60 senior leaders from all branches of the Air Force are attending the Expeditionary Skills Summit on Fort Dix.

Why: Inconsistencies in training--from weapons qualifications to where Airmen perform training before they deploy--led to a call for formal guidelines.

How this affects you: Airmen should have a better idea of what training is required and why before they deploy. Airmen will gain the same skills, regardless of which training site they attend. The results of this conference and the pending guidance offered to senior leaders will determine the amount and significance of any changes for Airmen.