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AFSO21 initiative speeds up training process

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Larry W. Carpenter Jr.
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  The 92nd Operations Support Squadron is reducing the amount of training time required to get aircrew mission-ready and deployable through an AFSO 21 Just Do It initiative. OSS representatives reworked the process that trains crewmembers arriving on station. Currently, it can take up to four months before a person is ready to deploy, the same amount of time it takes some students to get through the tech school required to learn the job.

"When someone shows up on base, they come with basic qualifications ... Then we have to get them what we call 'mission ready,' or deployable," said Lt. Col. Kelly Martin, 92nd Operations Support Squadron director of operations. The AFSO 21 team spent a day and a half figuring out how to get aircrew to that mission-ready point faster, and came up with a plan to reduce the current four-month training process to just 30 days."

"We asked ourselves the hard questions such as, 'Why do we do it this way? Does it have to be done this way?' We even challenged regulations" said Colonel Martin. "Nothing was off the table."

Changes will ensure that arriving crewmembers focus mainly on flying-specific tasks before returning to their squadrons to complete non-flying tasks. This time reduction will provide crewmembers with more time to become skilled in their jobs.

"It's important to reduce the training time because we have a lot of crewmembers who are deployed multiple times per year," said Maj. Stephen Walmsley, 92nd Air Refueling Wing AFSO 21 point of contact. "The sooner a crewmember is ready, the sooner he or she will be actively supporting the mission."

It's a simple numbers game; more crewmembers available to accomplish the mission equal less strain on each individual. As a Just Do It initiative, OSS will implement the plan immediately, but the true test of these numbers will be verified down the road as training progresses.

"I think that it's easy to claim victory very quickly, and we don't want to fall into the trap of doing that," said Colonel Martin. "What we want to do is take a look at it six months from now and see if it is giving us the response that we thought it would, and if not, to figure out why."

If response is good, the changes at Fairchild could affect the other tanker bases across Air Mobility Command, as other tanker bases "fall under the same guidelines ... so they're going to be having the same problems as we are," said Colonel Martin.

And, of course, the new training process will have great benefit locally.

"In the long run, our aircrew will see fewer days in the Area of Responsibility, more time between deployments, and capability to more rapidly execute the mission," said Major Walmsley.