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The Flyboys Get Tough
With more people in harm's way, the coddled Air Force starts stripping M-16s and pumping up basic training
By Julian E. Barnes
Generations of airmen have gone through the same drill at Air Force basic training: learning how to fold their clothes in precise 6-inch squares. Using tweezers to line up the folds of T-shirts exactly took hours. In fact, when the Air Force studied this test of precision and discipline, they discovered that the folding drill took 16 hours or more of training time over the 6 1/2-week basic course. But mastering precise folds is a skill of more use in a Banana Republic store than in the Iraqi republic.
With more and more airmen being deployed to hot war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force leaders decided last year that they needed more focus on combat skills in their basic training course. Now airmen are rolling, not folding, their underwear and spending the freed-up time learning how an M-16 rifle works. "I would really prefer to worry about combat skills," said Airman Basic Julian Pià who graduated from basic in February, one of the first recruits not to learn the folds.
Currently, many Air Force recruits do not handle an M-16 until the fifth week of training. But the Air Force intends to start issuing all recruits a training rifle as soon as they arrive for basic and to spend more time teaching them how to use it. "We still have attention to detail, but we accomplish that objective with the M-16," says Chief Master Sgt. Steve Sargent, the Air Force's superintendent of basic military training. "We have them strip and rebuild the rifle in two minutes."
Back to basics. Air Force basic training is currently the shortest in the armed forces, and the emphasis has long been on preparing recruits to learn highly technical jobs. But with the Army stretched thin, the Air Force is being asked to guard its own airfields, provide engineering squadrons for Army bases in Iraq, protect convoys moving from Kuwait to Baghdad, and provide explosive-ordnance teams to defuse roadside bombs. So beginning last November, the Air Force began ramping up its basic training, cramming in more combat training, stepping up lessons on base defense, adding combat first-aid classes, and looking for antiquated exercises it could ditch. "This is a big culture shift for us, and I think it is long overdue," says Brig. Gen. Mary Kay Hertog, commander of the 37th Training Wing at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. "We aren't trying to make people into Army infantry--don't get me wrong. We are trying to give them the basic combat skills they need to survive."
The Air Force has also continued to make the course more physically rigorous. Sargent says today's Air Force recruits are smarter but weaker than in generations past. "They are not in the best physical shape," Sargent says. "When they enter the fifth week, they are more fatigued." To address this, the Air Force now provides three days of strength conditioning and three days of aerobic workout every week of basic. Earlier this year the Air Force boosted the fitness test from 50 sit-ups in two minutes to 50 sit-ups in one minute. Airman Basic Tiffany Collins, a 20-year-old who graduated from the training course in February, thinks the service needs to step up the challenge further. "I think the changes are very good," she said. "My father was in the Air Force 24 years, and he said it was a lot easier when he did it."
The Air Force is planning to add two additional weeks to the basic course in October 2007. The service will also transform its current "warrior week" field training into a minideployment exercise called "the Beast"--a too-cute acronym that stands for Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training.
The end result of all of the changes, says Hertog, will be to "create a more lethal airman than what we have had in the past." But one not as prepared for department store work.
With more people in harm's way, the coddled Air Force starts stripping M-16s and pumping up basic training
By Julian E. Barnes
Generations of airmen have gone through the same drill at Air Force basic training: learning how to fold their clothes in precise 6-inch squares. Using tweezers to line up the folds of T-shirts exactly took hours. In fact, when the Air Force studied this test of precision and discipline, they discovered that the folding drill took 16 hours or more of training time over the 6 1/2-week basic course. But mastering precise folds is a skill of more use in a Banana Republic store than in the Iraqi republic.
With more and more airmen being deployed to hot war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force leaders decided last year that they needed more focus on combat skills in their basic training course. Now airmen are rolling, not folding, their underwear and spending the freed-up time learning how an M-16 rifle works. "I would really prefer to worry about combat skills," said Airman Basic Julian Pià who graduated from basic in February, one of the first recruits not to learn the folds.
Currently, many Air Force recruits do not handle an M-16 until the fifth week of training. But the Air Force intends to start issuing all recruits a training rifle as soon as they arrive for basic and to spend more time teaching them how to use it. "We still have attention to detail, but we accomplish that objective with the M-16," says Chief Master Sgt. Steve Sargent, the Air Force's superintendent of basic military training. "We have them strip and rebuild the rifle in two minutes."
Back to basics. Air Force basic training is currently the shortest in the armed forces, and the emphasis has long been on preparing recruits to learn highly technical jobs. But with the Army stretched thin, the Air Force is being asked to guard its own airfields, provide engineering squadrons for Army bases in Iraq, protect convoys moving from Kuwait to Baghdad, and provide explosive-ordnance teams to defuse roadside bombs. So beginning last November, the Air Force began ramping up its basic training, cramming in more combat training, stepping up lessons on base defense, adding combat first-aid classes, and looking for antiquated exercises it could ditch. "This is a big culture shift for us, and I think it is long overdue," says Brig. Gen. Mary Kay Hertog, commander of the 37th Training Wing at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. "We aren't trying to make people into Army infantry--don't get me wrong. We are trying to give them the basic combat skills they need to survive."
The Air Force has also continued to make the course more physically rigorous. Sargent says today's Air Force recruits are smarter but weaker than in generations past. "They are not in the best physical shape," Sargent says. "When they enter the fifth week, they are more fatigued." To address this, the Air Force now provides three days of strength conditioning and three days of aerobic workout every week of basic. Earlier this year the Air Force boosted the fitness test from 50 sit-ups in two minutes to 50 sit-ups in one minute. Airman Basic Tiffany Collins, a 20-year-old who graduated from the training course in February, thinks the service needs to step up the challenge further. "I think the changes are very good," she said. "My father was in the Air Force 24 years, and he said it was a lot easier when he did it."
The Air Force is planning to add two additional weeks to the basic course in October 2007. The service will also transform its current "warrior week" field training into a minideployment exercise called "the Beast"--a too-cute acronym that stands for Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training.
The end result of all of the changes, says Hertog, will be to "create a more lethal airman than what we have had in the past." But one not as prepared for department store work.
). Gail spent a day getting "familiarized" with small arms other than the M16. She couldn't recall the designation or aiming procedures for an M203. She did recall the basics of pointing it downrange. Better she have spent that day having her barracks and locker tossed and rebuilding it a few times. Sure, they learned some awesome combat skills. I saw those losers at DINFOS for her AIT (Which requires some of the BRIGHTER soldiers). There wasn't 1 in 10 I'd trust to follow my orders, because 25% of them weren't obeying their Drills there in peacetime--I watched 10% of them WALK OUT OF FORMATION when the Drill turned his back.
