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JBSA News
NEWS | June 27, 2008

Summer Leadership Program shows cadets the ropes

By Meredith Canales 37th Training Wing Public Affairs

Cadet Lt. Colonel Adam Williams is learning the hands-on way how to be a military training instructor.

Though few get the experience he is gaining, this Air Force Academy Cadet in Charge at Lackland's Summer Leadership Program said his role as sidekick to a military training instructor is giving him valuable insight into the leadership role.

"We've been assigned to an [instructor], we shadow that instructor and work as an extra hand for him," he said. "We don't have the same authority, but we get experience like being allowed to make corrections and pulling discrepancy forms.

"Our biggest job is to learn and observe how the instructor leads and get some hands-on experience with what it's like to have a flight of 50 or 60 people looking to you as an example."

Major Danny Davis, the squadron commander for the 324th Training Squadron and the program's base director, said being able to be on base and observe actual training helps the cadets understand what day-to-day training is all about.

"The leadership program provides the cadets the opportunity to understand how basic trainees or ordinary individuals are developed into warrior Airmen," he said. "It provides them the ability to see how military training instructors, some of the most dedicated non-commissioned officers in the Air Force, turn a flight of approximately 50 individuals into an extraordinary team."

Master Sgt. Carlos Salgado, section supervisor for the 324th TRS, is the liaison between the cadets and the commander.

"I've had cadets myself," he said. "So when they asked me if I wanted to take it on, I said 'by all means.'"

Sergeant Salgado said the cadets are more used to the academic side of Air Force training.

"All they're used to at the academy is getting an education," he said. "But here they actually get to see the enlisted side and how we groom our future Airmen to come up through the Air Force."

The benefits, though, do not lie solely on the side of the cadets.

"The military training instructors who were selected to mentor the cadets gain an opportunity to train these cadets into future leaders that they would be proud to follow," said Major Davis.

"This also gives the military training instructors a chance to show how well they train the enlisted force and how well they equip them to be future war fighters."

"The result is the world's greatest Airmen fighting in the world's greatest Air Force."
Sergeant Salgado agrees.

"A lot of the instructors have done training, but here they get a chance to mentor," he said. "This is their chance to show a future officer how to come up in the ranks and show them how to be successful."

Cadet Williams said the experience reminds him of the reason he originally joined the Air Force.

"It reminds me of what an awesome opportunity we get as members of the Air Force to serve the people. You kind of fall in love with the Air Force all over again, and that's something that happens when I'm down here, just getting to see the trainees learning and understanding what a big step it is to be a part of something bigger," he said.

"To see that transformation from the first day to the sixth week is amazing. Being able to see that I had a hand in that makes me realize that it's not just about me. I'm working for something better."