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EOD captain charges to top of class

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tara A. Williamson
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
With full classroom days and more than 50 pages of reading and homework assignments each night, Squadron Officer School was a far cry from Capt. Jacob Flatz's typical routine.

As an Explosives Ordnance Disposal officer, Flatz is accustomed to a more operational setting than that of the classroom. Despite the disparity in the environments, Flatz still managed to excel and was one of the class's Distinguished Graduates.

The in-residence course is a rigorous professional military education platform with more than 600 captains, learning the leadership skills required of them as they promote. 

"We talked about goal setting early on in the course, and they try to have you apply it at the course," said Flatz.

As part of that, Flatz took part in what he considered the most challenging part of the course: an ongoing critical analysis assignment started during the first week. Course participants had to tackle an Air Force-level issue outside their career field in five short weeks. The issue had to be an item they felt could be improved upon and they were required to come up with a solution.  Using research, the students had to formulate a realistic application of a significant change.

The project enables future field-grade officers to look at the bigger picture and find new ways to address issues.

Flatz chose preventative medicine and how to better apply it to physical fitness, hopefully preventing physical training injuries and was able to take something he knew about from experiences in his career field and apply it across the Air Force spectrum.

"The biggest thing I took away from [the course] overall for my job specifically was just how interconnected everything is," Flatz said. "All the different jobs and career paths - medical side and operation side - and seeing how it all ties together and connects. Working together really is important. You can't just stay in your lane."

Flatz' advice to future SOS students was simple: value classmates and their opinions. Build networks and relationships to build as time goes on.

As part of the 87th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, Flatz helps provide emergency response to the entire joint base and its surrounding communities - responding to more than 70 incidents annually on average.  Flatz plans to use what he learned in the course to continue working closely with all the agencies he supports.