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SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas: As the Air Force continues to evolve to meet the challenges of a constantly evolving global security environment, the 82nd Training Wing is working to transform maintenance and logistics technical training to deliver the Airmen who will form the heart of the future force.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are one wing in a big Air Force,\u201d said Col. Kenyon Bell, 82nd Training Wing commander, \u201cbut because of our role and the scope and scale of our training mission, we have an enormous role in shaping the future force.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 44% of the Air Force\u2019s technical training is accomplished at the 82nd Training Wing, Bell said \u2013 which includes logistics and most engineering career fields.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat includes logistics readiness; aircraft, munitions and missile maintenance; and civil engineering,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a significant role in training all of those disciplines, either entirely within the 82nd or in concert with our joint partners and also our sister wings in Second Air Force. That means we have a huge challenge and a huge opportunity \u2013 to transform technical training, and specifically maintenance and logistics training, to meet the strategic demands of a 21st Century force.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 82nd delivers more than 65,000 graduates annually in more than 900 maintenance, logistics, civil engineering and some cyber and missile maintenance courses. These courses cover not only initial skills training, but advanced and specialty courses delivered at 60 locations around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing technical training in the Air Force for a long time, and doing it very well. Here at Sheppard (AFB), it\u2019s been part of our DNA since the base opened in 1941. The Greatest Generation gave us an incredible gift when they laid the foundations of the training enterprise that, more or less, we still use,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we now find ourselves in a situation very similar to the one they faced. They had to build the training foundations for a viable force, accounting for rapidly changing technology and a very challenging global threat on the horizon. They did an incredible job \u2013 they made such an intellectual leap that we\u2019ve used their basic model for seven decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s our turn. As an Air Force, we are in the midst of incredible technological changes happening at light speed, as well as our own challenging threat picture. The evolutionary, incremental changes we\u2019ve made over the years to the training process are no longer enough \u2013 we need to make revolutionary changes. We need to make the same kind of evolutionary leap our forebears made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell said the wing, Second Air Force and AETC have been laying the foundations for this transformation for several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a lot of experimentation and innovation going on, especially since 2016,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been incredibly important in helping us understand what works and what doesn\u2019t. Now it\u2019s time to start putting those lessons in play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those experiments are efforts like the Enhanced Training Day, launched at Sheppard AFB in 2016. That effort explored ways to incorporate force development and foundational competencies \u2013 Airmanship \u2013 into the technical training environment.<\/p>\n
Along with similar efforts at other technical training wings, the experiment helped inform Second Air Force\u2019s Airmanship 200 program, which will formally integrate core Airmanship and force-development concepts into technical training beginning this year.<\/p>\n
Another effort more specific to the maintenance and logistics world is Maintenance Next. Activated in January 2019 at Joint Base San Antonio\u2019s Kelly Field, its goal is to explore ways to leverage advanced technologies to train aircraft maintainers \u2013 specifically crew chiefs \u2013 more efficiently and effectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnology is changing the way we live and learn and it has opened up many opportunities to improve training to meet the needs of today\u2019s Airman,\u201d said Lt. Col. Sean Goode, Maintenance Next detachment commander.<\/p>\n
Currently, the Maintenance Next team is working with students who recently graduated basic military training. These students are able to explore through learning labs any time of the day or night in their dormitory or work center. The labs feature a variety of learning devices to include augmented and virtual-reality simulators.<\/p>\n
\u201cOffering 24\/7 access to education and diverse tools helps our team understand which tools best suit the learning needs of our Airmen,\u201d Goode said. \u201cWe are also examining those tools to determine if they are successful at building maintainer competencies through hands-on evaluations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beginning this spring, Maintenance Next will be field tested at Sheppard AFB, Bell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSean (Goode) has done an incredible job looking at how these emerging technologies can enhance training,\u201d Bell said. \u201cThe next step is to test them in the formal training environment. If we get the results we expect, then we\u2019ll focus on the next big challenge \u2013 how to implement across other maintenance specialties and then sustain it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While transforming maintenance and logistics training is a strategic imperative, Bell said it\u2019s important to be realistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to have a bias for action and move forward,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we also have to understand that maintenance and logistics training is a huge enterprise with a long history and lots of moving parts. It\u2019s not just about what happens in the classroom \u2013 it\u2019s about the whole process: how we define training requirements and resource them; the processes for staffing instructors and military training leaders; making curriculum development more iterative and responsive to the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
This maintenance training transformation effort is a large job and will require coordination and cooperation across the enterprise: from the staff sergeant instructor at the podium all the way up to Air Education and Training Command commander, Lt. Gen. Brad Webb and Air Force deputy chief of staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, Lt. Gen. Warren Berry.<\/p>\n
A part of the job that often gets overlooked, he said, is communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cVision 2020 is our effort to make sure our stakeholders know what we\u2019re trying to do and why \u2013 and also to get their input, support and buy-in,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take all of us working together to make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vision 2020 will be anchored by a series of videos featuring different aspects of the transformation effort, along with articles and other products, released throughout the year.<\/p>\n