Lackland Air Force Base, Texas –
About 100 new or selected brigadier generals and Senior Executive Service members got a firsthand look Monday at Lackland's enhanced field training for basic military trainees.
"We came to Lackland specifically to see this training," said Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel at the Pentagon and leader of the Senior Leaders Orientation Course. The 10-day block of training began with seven days in Washington, D.C., and concluded Wednesday in San Antonio.
"Everything I've seen here reflects continued transformation of our Air Force to an expeditionary force starting on day one," said General Brady, wearing the new Airman Battle Uniform.
"This is the newest class of brigadier generals and Senior Executive Service members in our Air Force," the general said. "Many of them did not have the Lackland experience," he said. "They need to get an up-close-and-personal look at the young Airmen that they'll lead."
New Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley, also wearing the ABU, was among the senior leaders taking the course. "I went to basic training 32 years ago right here, and it's great to be back here on the obstacle course," he said. "But the thing I noticed is the change in the warrior ethos of what we're doing. ... What we teach our Airmen today in basic training is fantastic; we just need to make sure that we continue that mentality in everything they learn here at tech school, on to their first duty assignment."
The helmet-wearing Airmen, in their fourth week of basic training, were concealed behind circular sandbag walls termed defensive fighting positions, or DFPs, and held non-firing M-16 training rifles as the senior leaders arrived on buses at Scorpions Nest, Field Training Experience, at Lackland Training Annex.
Loudspeakers blared sounds of machine guns and explosions as a simulated attack began, and trainees crawled through 90 yards of sand beneath camouflage and barbed wire. After the low-crawl and high-crawl obstacles, the trainees went through a tactical course before evacuating in a loaded march to a secondary camp. There, they manned DFPs and challenged instructors posing as aggressors.
"We want to put them in the most strenuous conditions possible," Master Sgt. Robert Hembree explained in a briefing before the exercise, so they will know what it feels like in a real-life scenario. "We want to impart our vision and our knowledge to these folks, because we don't want them coming home in a box with a flag wrapped on it," added the sergeant, who is superintendent of field training.
Next year, the LTA area will undergo a $25.4 million upgrade as the 69.26-acre Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training (BEAST) site for five days of training in the sixth week as BMT is expanded an additional two weeks to 8 1/2 weeks in late 2007.
General Brady said training already has "changed a great deal" in the 10 years since his last visit. "We're trying to accomplish much more, and it reflects the changing nature of what Airmen do.
"It reflects a very keen awareness and recognition by the leadership of expeditionary operations and the need to prepare our young Airmen from day one to participate effectively in expeditionary operations," he added. "And so this is a great training grounds, and the training command here is doing a great job."
The general spoke to four trainees manning a DFP at the secondary camp. "They actually said they were having fun," he said. "So a great group of young men who were excited about being here and learning all the things an expeditionary Airman needs to know."
Brig. Gen. Darrell Jones, 37th Training Wing commander, accompanied General Brady during the Lackland visit.
"The 37th Wing are great hosts," General Brady said. "They're doing an incredible job. This is clearly the Gateway to the Air Force, and we're really proud of the great young men and women who have volunteered to be here and will continue to make us and sustain us and ensure that we are today and for tomorrow the world's most respected air and space and cyberspace force."